Recovering Who I Am
by ChildOfApolloHunterOfArtemis
Summary: I'm not your average American girl. I've been left behind by both my parents, bullied, raped, runaway, and done a few illegal things. I'm a fighter, but my view of the world is still dark because I'm still fighting. This is how a certain green eyed boy lit it up, a stranger returns, connections learned, and I realize that I can stop fighting. AU Percabeth Thaluke & canon pairings
1. Chapter 1

**Hi fanfiction people! I know I should be updating my other stuff, but I wanted to write a beautiful percabeth AU (original I know), so here you go. I don't own PJO or HoO.  
**

 _Before we met, I was a static character but then you started my path to be a dynamic one._

* * *

A shrill, annoying noise filled the air, the alarm on my flip phone. I opened my eyes to see that I spent the night at Thalia and Luke's place, more specifically on their old black couch. I grabbed the phone off the coffee table and turned off the noise, I'll find out if I hit snooze in five minutes. I yawn and wipe the sleep out of my eyes then carefully fold the blanket at my legs.

An over six foot blond sophomore and his dwarf Latino companion in the same grade walk past me to the kitchen. I can smell coffee and toast, the most basic breakfast known to American man kind. I get up, phone in hand, and head over to the kitchen. It's small, with no washing machine, half the cabinet doors broken, and a five person round table with garage sale chairs taking up too much space, but it works.

I take my grey fold up seat next to the blond superman and across from the elf of ADHD. My backpack is still on Thalia's blue fold up with papers going every which way. I sigh and take everything out to reorganize. An English novel and work sheet dealing with another one of Shakespeare's plays, which is it's own level of difficult with dyslexia, for AP English language. My honors Calculus book and workbook, only Mrs. Dodds would give homework for both on the same day. My finished AP physics lab report and my architecture project, done and due tomorrow. Once that and all my other supplies are neatly packed, I grab the last piece of toast the boys are fighting over.

"Jason, you've had three and I had two, the last one is rightfully mine!"

"I'm a growing boy Leo!"

"Well, I need to grow more than you, so it's mine!"

"Well, I'm growing now so it's mine!"

I smirk and shake my head at their antics. I cough and wave a little piece of crust in the air, all that's left of the toast. Both of them look rather offended. "I'm sorry guys, but you realize Thalia left six so there would be two for everyone? Also, there's no more bread because she made the ends."

Jason sighed. "Sorry Annabeth, we thought you made it back to your house last night."

I turned to Leo who nodded in agreement. "Yeah, sorry but can't you bring food from la casa de Fredrick Chase?"

Jason elbowed him. "You know why she can't do that Leo."

"I know it's just a thought that maybe he will at least talk to you then."

I sighed. "Or call the cops and say I stole from the neighbors, broke in somewhere, or did something illegal. With my childhood record and how messed up the police departments are, I'll end up in juive again or in jail."

They both groan in annoyance. You see, Jason is Thalia's younger brother who she adopted right after her eighteenth birthday. He'd been in foster care and houses since the tender age of five before reaching Thalia at age twelve. Luckily, he wasn't abused in any type of manner while in the system. Although, he did end up in this cult for twelve months and left with a tattoo with an eagle, twelve lines, and SPQR on his arm. Leo, on the other hand, got in the system after his mom died in a fire started by a runaway criminal woman, known as Gaea, with Leo himself barely surviving. His aunt wouldn't take him in, which is strange because she's the Hispanic version of the Duggers, so he bounced from home to home until he ended up in one with Jason. The two became best friends and were glued at the hip for 16 months until Thalia finally found Jason. Jason refused to go with Thalia, even though he really wanted to, unless she agreed to adopt Leo as well. Technically, Thalia and Luke were recently married and probably didn't meet the income needed to get Jason, but someone inside pulled some strings and Leo was adopted too, keeping his last name in honor of his mom and Jason keeping his. Sadly, Leo was abused by one of his foster moms, Teresa, so it took him awhile to adjust to Thalia, since Luke was a truck driver at the time and almost never around.

I view both boys as little brothers and my responsibility to take care of them ever since Thalia became a second grade teacher a year ago and Luke now being a Fed Ex driver, he says it pays a little better and he gets to see all us more. I have my own half brothers, but Helen forbids me to even touch them so they grew up without my guidance, even if some of that's my own fault. On the flip side, Jason and Leo are both overly protective of me and don't want anything bad happening to me. It's sweet of them, but we go to different high schools since I technically live in another district, so they can't do all that much.

"Seriously you two, it's not that bad and we all need to go to school."

Leo plants his head on the table. "Can't we just ditch?"

Jason flicks the top of his head. "No we can't, we have three tests and a quiz today."

"Exactly."

I sigh. "I'll help you with your homework if we leave in the next three minutes."

They took off like rockets, works every single time. I pour myself a cup of black coffee and down it in three large chugs. I pick up my backpack and walk out of the apartment to the lobby. They both appear a minute later. I smile. "Not bad, but the record of 90 seconds last year for summer homework stills stands."

Leo snorts and hands everyone a toothbrush, Dixie cup with water, and squirts the paste on each. It may seem a little weird to carry that, but Jason has to carry the combs and brush while I carry my own two sets of clothes for myself, old habits die hard. Once I finish, I throw my cup out and take my brush from Jason and quickly do my hair in a ponytail. Since it's early fall, I take off my shirt, don't worry I have a Cami underneath so I don't flash anybody, and pull on one of my back-up shirts, the orange one with a black Pegasus on the front. I get a few whistles and the senders get blue lasers from Jason and brown ones from Leo. I give them a grateful smile and ruffle straight blond and curly brown hair. I ruffle Leo's a little too much.

"Leo, my hand in stuck in your hair again."

"Well chica, let me comb it first next time."

"A little help, Jase?"

Jason chuckles and helps pull my hand out as we reach the subway station. It's as busy as ever during morning rush hour, no big surprise there. We show our passes and rush to get on the incoming train.

I always love this part of the morning as I dodge the people and play a bad game of tag with the boys and almost miss the train. It sucks when we miss it or all of us don't make it on the same one. Thankfully, today isn't one of those days. Although, there were only two seats left, so I let Jason and Leo sit there to do their work.

Jason tapped my arm. "Who wrote the "Letters from a Farmer"?

"John Dickinson."

Leo tapped next. "What's the square root of 169?"

I give him a look.

"I left my calculator at school and you know I have math first."

"13."

It continued like this for about ten minutes until the closest stop to my school was approaching. I sigh and look at the boys. "I'm getting off in a minute, any last minute questions?"

Leo raised his hand for a few seconds, then Jason raised his. "Yes, Jason, what is your question?"

"No fair!"

"Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?"

"That was my question Sparky!"

I shake my head. "For the love of pizza, we watched National Treasure last night! It was signed in Independence Hall in Philly."

The intercom came on and said all off for my stop. I smile bye while Leo salutes and Jason waves. Once I get off the train, I book it to street level and jog three blocks to school. It doesn't take all that long since I'm a natural runner and on cross country, it's a shame the season's almost over. I would take spring track, but Fredrick only lets me do one sport, says it's less expensive.

I see Goode High School as I turn the final bend. The parking lot is packed full of cars and teenagers mulling around and gossiping about who did what and where. I roll my eyes, the day I start caring about random crap people do is the day Leo stops speaking in Spanish.

I spot my one true and only friend in this prison sitting on a bench and waving me over. I smile and dash over to her side. Her name is Calypso and she loves gardening and mechanics, a weird combo but it works like frosties and french fries. She's wearing jeans and a white tee with a lavender jacket on top. Her caramel hair is in it's weird side thing with a head band and almond shaped eyes without make up, another thing we have in common besides daddy issues and being smart.

I plop down beside her on the bench. "What's up Callie?"

She sighs. "My dad wants to meet Leo, but I know he just wants to scare him away."

Ah yes, Callie and Leo have been dating in secret for about a year now and her dad flipped when he found out. Atlas Titan has the opposite problem of my dad, he cares far too much and takes on a whole new level of a hover parent. We both know he only wants what's best for her, but Calypso thinks he wants to control her life so nothing can hurt her, a very unrealistic goal.

I put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Leo may be small but he can survive your dad. The only reason he's doing this is to make sure Leo's a good guy."

"I know, but he has this mind set that no one's good enough for me and it's going to crush some of Leo's confidence."

"You'll build it back up after."

The 15 minute warning bell rings from inside the prison. Thank goodness Callie's in everything with me except my gym and architecture, or thank Luke and Leo who hatched into the school scheduling system to make sure we weren't unhappy loners. The bad thing is, I have gym first.

We both sigh and start the trek into the building, which is designed after an actual prison and is one of the blandest buildings in all of New York. Seriously, everything is blue and grey which have almost turned into the same color after years of no extra coatings of paint and fading. The lockers are all this cool grey color, but they were bright blue about twenty years ago, and line almost every hall. There are three floors total and each hold certain classes. First floor is half underground and has any subject dealing with computers, art, and history. Second floor contains the gym, theater, pool, math, and anything with music. The third floor is all the English, science, and any the electives left over.

We hurry down the stairs and over to Mr. Brunner's AP U.S. history room where our lockers are located, side by side. I'm proud to say my locker is organized chronologically with my classes and everything is in perfect order. Calypso's looks like someone dumped a trash can from a paper hoarder's house inside.

I shake my head. "You know, if you organized your locker, you would able to find more then half your crap without being late."

Callie pulls her head out of her locker and brief looks into mine. "Yeah, and if you weren't such a perfectionist and extremely OCD-"

"It's ADHD and dyslexia, OCD has never been confirmed."

"-people might actually see you as a real person and not an android who could take over the world."

I wave her off. "I'm not a robot Callie, but if I wanted to, then I could start a new world order with clean locker codes and flying cars."

Callie shudders. "Don't start that until we're both out of school."

I smirk. "Wasn't planning on it."

I grab my physics and English stuff, then close and lock my locker. Callie is stilling digging and looking for her play and choir music sheets. I squint my eyes to help her in the search, even though looking into it directly makes me want to skip class to clean the thing. Maybe I should get checked for OCD. I won't be able to get any meds if I do, I don't get any meds now, but it would still be nice to know. I spot the novel in between random papers and grab it.

"Found the novel, missing anything else?"

Callie finds the last music sheet to "See you again" by Charlie insert name here and Wiz rapper dude. Guess their teacher wants to do something in honor of the end of Glee, or the guy just can't believe it's over.

"No, I got it Annabeth, and yes he can't get over Glee."

"That's not what I was thinking about."

"Okay, if not that than how it was worse when the actor who played Finn died."

"Bingo. Has anyone found a replacement show for him?"

"Mr. Fletcher is going to see Pitch Perfect with his siblings for the first time, hopefully that works."

We hike up the stairs to the fork in the hallway, music and entertainment left and athletics right. I always think of when Dorothy met the scarecrow and they skipped down the same path due to the school's dealer usually selling drugs and taking clients for a high in the bathrooms. If not him, the school prostitute stands there waiting. If not them, then the kid selling test answers and cheats on "pop" quizzes. It makes me feel a little sad that there's someone visiting all three, our very own Dorothy. At the same time, I'm glad I'm not a part of it.

I sigh and wave bye to Callie. "See you next period."

Callie smiles and waves back. "You too and don't take over the school."

A smile appears on my face then disappears. I might love sports and be competitive, but I can't stand gym class. Maybe it's because I don't really know most the the kids and don't want to, so I'm a loner. Maybe it's all the people who don't change or participate in anything yet can still get an A. Maybe I don't like the fact I have to prove I'm not a dumb blond every single day.

I get to the locker room to see it almost empty because most people don't get changed three minutes before class starts. I quickly unlock my gym locker, take out clothes, get changed, and shove anything of value like my flip phone and materials inside then lock it. I don't look all that different except I'm wearing grey sweats and a Yankees tee with my hair in a redone pony. Perfect.

I sprint out of the locker room and rush into the gym as the bell rings. Most of the boys who are pigs, 23% of this class, look at me with perverted thoughts and a bit of lust. It doesn't bother me as much as it used, I just give my go to hell and don't even think about coming back glare, a good amount shuddered and take a small step back. It's important to do this or else I could end up in a moment like in _Speak,_ far sooner than I want to. I hear a few of the girls call me a whore, stripper, and a split girlfriend between two boys. Better they talk behind my back than mess with my lockers or me. I find a spot away from everyone else to stand while Coach Quintus takes attendance.

Coach Quintus blows his whistle. "Okay class, stop the chatter. Now, all freshmen head off to the pool area because tomorrow you start your three weeks of swimming." Groans can be heard from where the freshmen are gathered. "Also, would Annnabeth Chase go with them." All eyes snap towards me, great.

"Is there a reason for this coach? Because it's early October, they shouldn't be getting lost any more." I get a few chuckles and mumbles of protest from that.

"Chase you missed your swimming unit in freshmen year." Yeah, because I had grown out of my old suit and couldn't afford a new one. I don't swim enough to make it worth the money. Then there was the whole drama with this guy, that's still going on by the way. I did invest in a suit for the summer the following year and I got a whole suit on sale mid June.

"I wrote an essay on the history of swimming."

"You never brought in the parent or doctor note needed. You still passed, but you need to make it up." Yeah Fredrick and Helen thought I was being a baby and there was nothing wrong with me.

"What if I got the note tomorrow?"

"That's two years too late. It's fifteen days of your life and you need to pass gym to graduate. You need to take this and pass or you retake gym next year."

"But Coach Quintus-"

"No buts Annabeth, you start tomorrow."

I sigh and trail the thirty-three freshmen to the pool area. An Italian boy slows down a bit to match my pace. I smile, to most of his class, he's an emo but to me he's like a cousin. This is probably because he's Jason and Thalia's cousin in real life, along with Hazel who goes to Jase and Leo's school. They have some other cousin, but lost touch with him after shit it the fan and all the dads left. Nico and Hazel found the Grace siblings with a private detective to make sure they were okay after Bianca, Nico's full sister, died.

"I thought you don't like being around me at Goode? I know Will, Lou, and Cecil are in this class, go hang out with your friends."

Nico looked at me with almost black eyes. "I know you don't want to do this, but try to be... positive."

"This coming from you di Angelo."

"Just ask if you can do your swimming after school or during lunch to avoid being sexual harassed or raped again."

I freeze for a second. I'm not going to lie, those things have happened since I arrived at Goode three years ago. It's a dirty little secret I keep from Jason and Leo because they'd do something rash, while Luke and Thalia do know but tell me to make my own decision on the matter. They want me to call the cops or threaten anyone who's trying to do stuff like that to me, and I do threaten. I don't call the cops, because, and I know this is extremely stupid, it might hurt my chances of getting into college or a scholarship offer. A good part of society blames the victim in these kinds of situations and I never really cared that much about waiting for marriage or the "one" when it came to virginity. I do make sure I don't have STDs and that the bastards have condoms. So, I avoid the elephant in the room along with the lion and the annoying hyenas.

"What makes you think that happens Nico?"

"Chase, I'm very good at over hearing and reading people."

I sigh. "Just don't tell Jase or Leo about this. I'll switch schools next year when I'm eighteen, okay?"

He doesn't look happy about it. "Fine."

The freshmen in front of us push the doors to the pool open. I can see three figures, two boys and a girl, waiting for us, or most likely Nico. There's a tall blond with bright blue eyes who reminds me of Jason due to appearance, is Will, future doctor and Nico's crush. Will also likes Nico, but everyone's letting the two realize it on their own time. The other boy has brown hair and eyes, who knows how to break and screw up anything, is Cecil. The girl has brown hair with purple streaks and eyes, don't ask me how that's possible because I don't know, loves magic and Doctor Who, is Lou Ellen. She and Cecil have crushes on each other two, but everyone does what they do with Will and Nico, or Solangelo.

Will jogs over to us and puts a hand on Nico's shoulder. "There you are death boy, I was worried you'd ditch us for three weeks."

Nico gave his signature smirk. "Think I'd miss the chance to have a splash war Solace." Or see him in a swim suit.

Will then directs his attention towards me. We don't know each other all that well, but we get along fine. "No offense, but this must suck for you Annnabeth."

"You have no idea."

The three of us scurry to Lou and Cecil, then all of us quickly rush past the doors just before they close. A good amount of the freshmen are looking at me like I'm some kind artifact. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this torture coach, thank you. Everyone else is looking at the pool.

It's not empty like I thought it would be, instead it's full of swimmers. Some have caps, most have goggles, but over half are boys. In fact, for every girl there's about three boys and I see six girls.

I hear a whistle blown and all eyes, mine included, snap towards a woman. The first thing I catch sight of is the neon pink hair that's dripping wet. The next is the fact she carries her self with an air of confidence and calm, she can probably start a fight if someone looks at her wrong. She has ocean blue eyes and is wearing a blue whole suit and surfer shorts and looks to be in her mid twenties. This had to be the woman in charge of my aquatic education.

"Okay class, listen up. You will be spending three school weeks, or fifteen days, in this pool swimming. I don't care if you know how to swim, I care about you doing the strokes correctly. You will be doing free style, breast stroke, backstroke, butterfly, side stroke, diving, and treading water. If there's time, I'll pull out the kayaks and canoes for a day or two. I expect everyone to change into a suit, nothing skimpy, and get in the water. If you miss a day, you have to make it up during your lunch or after school. Days not made up are a zero. If you don't know how to swim, tell me before tomorrow so I can have two groups. If you have any questions, come ask and if not just talk for the rest of time. Also, since I have a long, hard to say name, call me Coach Kym."

Coach Kym then proceeded to walk away from all of us and over to the pool. She was followed by a group of about seven people who probably don't know how to swim. I tap my foot impatiently as she marks people off and Lou and Nico tell Will and Cecil how anything in Paranormal Activity is bullshit. I agree that it could never be real and I've only trailers. Finally, all the students around her disperse and I walk over to her.

Coach Kym grins. "Let me guess, the junior who didn't swim two years ago."

I cross my arms. "I wrote an essay."

She looks at her clipboard. "I know, it was a fine essay, one of the best I've ever had the pleasure of reading for this class. Now, what's your game plan to get out of this class again?"

Did she just call me one of those people who don't participate? "Coach Kym, is it possible for me to just do my swimming after school?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing you want to do this with all your swim days?"

"Except maybe a day or two, since the girls cross county state meet is in two weeks and I have practice after school. On those days, I'd like to take it during lunch."

"What are you, extremely modest or scared of all the younger boys harassing you? I'll have you know-"

"Coach Kym!"

A black haired boy, who appears to be about an inch shorter than Jase, calls from in the pool about five feet away. He has blue goggles resting in his hair and the eye color of sea green, my second favorite color. He seemed like a trouble maker without even trying, but an all around softie and loyal puppy on the inside. I felt a weird pull towards him, but pushed that away because when it comes to unknown males, things can go south real fast. He looked familiar though. I might have been in a class or a lunch with him before, but never actually paid attention to him. The guy looked to be either a junior or senior, so he could have been. Yet, he couldn't be as perfect as he seemed because nobody's perfect, as stated by a Hannah Montana song.

"Yes, Jackson?"

Jackson, I know that name from somewhere and not because of Andrew Jackson or any other historical figures.

"I think the team would be okay with her taking up space for three weeks."

Why did his voice have to sound like an angel's? Why couldn't he sound like Leo or Mr. Fletcher, to not boost his level of attractiveness?

"Did you ask the whole team or are you listening to private conversations again?"

"A bit of both coach, but, seriously, everyone would be okay with it."

"Someone would have to monitor her and grade her."

"I already do that for the team as a whole. I think I can handle another person."

Well, this is kind of rude. I cough and gesture at myself. "I'm right here you know."

Jackson turns to face me and include me in my conversation again. "Well, I'm captain of the boys swim team and rep. for the girls because somehow there are only freshmen and sophomores this year and no one's ready to step up. Basically, I'm giving coach the okay to let you swim after school."

I cross my arms. I figured most of that out on my own. Besides, who else could all those swimmers be? This is the whole dumb blond thing I have to prove in gym, to a guy I don't know and honestly should care less about. Is it me, or are his eyes looking into my very soul?

Coach Kym sighs and looks at both of us. "I'll go put your info on a clipboard for Jackson. You're starting tomorrow like everyone else Chase." She then proceeds to walk into a locker room for the girls.

Then, almost like magnets, our eyes lock on each others. For a few seconds, there's nothing but silence, beautiful silence. Of course he has to be the one to break it. "So, I'm guessing your first name isn't Chase because she calls everyone by their last names. Plus it would be kind of weird if your parents gave you a boy name."

And there's the fault, he's not all that bright but pretty observant. I give him a look, a certain sexist glare if you will. "Even if that was my first name, how do you consider something a boy name? Haley was once a popular boy name, but is now mostly known as a girl name. For all we know, in twenty years Chase could very well be a popular girl name." Once my little rant is done, he's blushing a bit and looks flustered.

"Sorry, just trying to make conversation."

"What's wrong with silence?"

"Nothing, I'd just like to know you better since we're coming to be spending a lot of time together for three weeks."

"Technically, it's just thirty-five to forty minutes and it's not like we're going to talk to each other after this, so why would you want to get to know me."

"This is what I get for trying to be nice and polite."

"Very little good comes from being nice and people are usually just polite to impress others."

"So you don't believe in manners and doing the right thing?

"The nice thing isn't always the right thing. How can we even judge what's right because the opinion changes for every person? For example, what's your take on the death penalty?"

"I don't believe in it."

"Neither do I, so we have similar views."

"Great, now before you get all defensive again-"

"I do not."

"- my name is Percy Jackson. What's your name?"

Now I remember, he's Mr. Blofis's step-son. He also has a record for destroying stuff and accidents on field trips.

I roll my eyes. "This isn't first grade."

"No name, no entry to the pool."

"You're so immature."

"Says the girl who ranting about names."

"I discussed the names and their relation to gender."

"Do you have to fight with me on everything!"

I smirk. "No, you just make it too easy. If I'm really such a pain, let me be someone else's problem."

He pauses briefly. "I said I'd monitor and grade you and with your attitude at present, no one would want to do that, except coach but she'd make your life hell because of your weird issue with swimming and this class."

He gives me a few seconds to consider that possibility. I'd be fine doing the extra work, but the locker room? I shudder, no way in hell am I going to put up with any more bullshit from the preppy lifeguards. Not to mention, it gives the chance for the upperclassmen to ambush me or pull shit. I'm not putting myself in one of those situations, even I don't know anyone in that pool, they're definitely the better option.

"Clearly, you don't want to go there Chase. Now, be the wise girl I know you are and cooperate with me."

"Well seaweed brain-"

"I walked right into the one, didn't I?"

"Yes you did, now let me finish. My name is Annabeth Chase and I expect you not to call me Annie, Beth, Anna, Bethie, Annabel, or anything other stupid short cut from saying my full first name."

He whistles long and slow. "Well, I guess I'll stick to Annabeth or Wise Girl, I hope that floats your boat."

I sigh. "Fine with me Seaweed Brain."

Coach Kym comes back over to us. "Her info is in your locker Jackson. I hope you two are getting along?"

Jackson smirks. "Swimmingly."

Great, he makes water related puns. This is going to be a long three weeks.

 **I have a little over 20k invested in this story so far, but I don't know if I should continue it. I really would appreciate any feedback you, the viewers, give me.**


	2. Chapter 2

_They say when you hit rock bottom, the only place left to go is up, that's not true. You can stumble around rock bottom for a long time, and you're technically still going somewhere._

* * *

After my annoying and slightly endearing conversation with Jackson, I don't feel close enough to call him Percy just yet, I make my way back over to Nico and company who are now discussing Pitch Perfect 2. Nico sees me coming and shuffles to meet me.

"What took you so long? Class is almost over."

I sigh. "Remember how I said Leo has to be the single most annoying guy out there?"

"Yeah, you poured Kool-aid on his head right afterwards. Still have the picture, want to use it for blackmail?"

"Maybe another time, but the point is Leo has officially lost the title to Jackson."

I then proceed to point at him in his lap lane. Nico looks at me like I'm some kind of alien.

"You've got to be shitting me. He lost the title to Percy?"

I give a look. "You know him?"

Nico nods. "He was my welcoming guide for orientation. Has a weird sense of humor and not on your I.Q. level, but he's a good guy. What did he do to piss you off?"

I then swiftly tell my tale of the annoying swimmer as we make our way over to Will, Lou, and Cecil. I can tell Nico thinks it's hilarious because by the time we reach them, he bursts out laughing. It's strange due to the fact he rarely laughs in public and everyone turns to watch us now.

I cross my arms. "It's not funny Nico."

He barely makes out a reply in his fit of laughter. "Percy .. and you..." Whatever he was trying to say is drowned in a new wave of giggles. Will and Lou look at Nico, checking to make sure he isn't high. Cecil on the other hand is jumping up and down.

"Please tell me what is so funny it made Nico crack, please."

Nico finally calms down and smiles at Cecil. "You had to be there and she won't tell it again anyways."

Will taps his pointer finger to his chin. "Let me guess, Percy somehow annoyed the crap out of Annabeth."

Nico smiles. "Correct, Will, and Chase, please learn to take a joke."

Cecil looks at me with pleading and curious eyes. "Will you tell it to me?"

Lou shakes her head and flicks his head. "Leave the poor upperclassman alone Cecil. Nico, stop telling it to Will and save it for lunch." Nico sighs and nods. Where would these three morons be without Lou when she's calm?

Coach Kym blows her whistle. "Time to go get changed kids, and I expect all of you be here tomorrow." Is it just me, your was she making eye contact with me the whole time? Yep, she was. I nod in her direction and put on my "I'm a good kid" face and walk out trailing the freshmen to let Nico secretly tell Will and Cecil what happened. It still isn't funny to me though.

By the time I reach the locker room, most of the girls are already out and I have two minutes to change. My next class is close enough so I won't be late, got to love the person who made my schedule.

As I enter the locker room, I can see my locker has a bunch of sticky notes on it. When I get closer, I notice the level of creativity has gone up since the incident last week. There were a good amount of "whore", "bitch", "slut", and "smart ass" stickies. A few people drew me as a stick figure being fucked by another stick figure or cutting myself. Then there were the random "loser", "suck up", "teacher's pet", "nobody", and the one that really got to me "mistake".

You know how people say "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", well I have a different version "you can hit and hurt me, but only certain words can break me". One of those words just happen to be mistake.

I grab the near by trash can and start ripping the stickies off in fist-fulls. My mind wanders though, to why the word always seems to have a straight, deadly shot to my heart. My mother met Fredrick while they were both attending the same college. My mother helped my dad get through Harvard and somehow the two of them started dating. Right after graduation, my mother found out she was four months pregnant with me. Now, my mother had plans, that didn't include being a parent, so when I was born she left me on Fredrick's front door. In a surprising twist, Fredrick didn't want to be a parent either. In fact, my sperm donor only took minimal care of me up to the age of three. After that, I somehow managed to keep myself alive off of microwave meals and snacks. Once Fredrick married Helen, I had accepted this to be the norm. for kids my age.

The bell rings as I toss the last of the stickies into the trash and cover them with some loose leaf. Then I quickly do the reverse process I did at the beginning of the period, so I'm back to orange shirt and jeans again. I gather up my crap and swiftly speed walk to my English class.

It doesn't take that long and I make it there with 94 seconds to spare and take my seat in the back. I hate the stereotype that all the smart people sit in the front and are the perfect little angels. Clearly, those people haven't had the pleasure of meeting me and Calypso. We're the kids who sit in the back of room and pass notes because we finish our work at home or are ahead of everyone else. We could text, but minutes aren't cheap and notebook paper is.

Callie makes it with 15 seconds in change and slams her stuff down on her desk then plops into her seat. I see a "Journey" music sheet and realize Mr. Fletcher is worse than I thought, way past Finn dying bad. If he's pulling out that song, he'll probably redo "I lived". Hopefully, the Hail Mary movie play known as Pitch Perfect, and maybe the sequel, works.

I take out my _Macbeth_ book and notes we took yesterday. Being the smart, workaholic I am, I finished the rest of the notes last night. I turn to Callie to see she did the same thing.

Our teacher is out on vacation, so Mr. D, our beloved principal, is being the sub for the next few days. That means, our current watchdog doesn't care what we do as long as we finish our work. I don't know how the district let someone like him be a principal, but I'm not about to complain.

I turn to Callie and gesture to the music sheet. "Worse."

She rolls her eyes. "You have no idea Annabeth. I wish he kept up with the show more and wasn't a season behind when it ended. Then this could be his past students' problem!"

I cross my fingers. "Just hope the movie works."

Callie sighed. "It better because I don't want to spend any more time with a teacher mourning over a TV show. Why did I take choir again?"

I smile. "Because you love to sing and thought it would be an easy class?"

She hits herself with her Macbeth book. "What I wouldn't give to slap the sophomore me upside the head."

"I'd like to do the same thing to my freshman self for not forging a note."

Calypso looks at me concerned. "What did you drag yourself into this time Annabeth?"

So I tell her too about the whole swimming drama, the Jackson drama, and the Nico part. She was patient and reacted quite similar to myself.

"Well, I don't get how Nico di Angelo found that funny. My best guess is that he finds the pain of others enjoyable."

"Yeah Callie, but I think it was the whole situation."

"Fine, on another note, you haven't been to your house in almost a week."

I tense a little, I really don't like going back there. "So?"

Callie sighs. "I know you hate it there, but you need a new set of clothes. Also, you remember that deal you made with Fredrick back when you were fourteen?"

How could I forget. The Chase family unit have only moved a total of two times. The first was right after they found nine year old me after two years of being MIA with Thalia and Luke. I loved those two years because I felt that I was part of a real family, then I was returned to Fredrick and taken to San Fransisco. If they thought I would magically behave, they were incorrect. Every chance I got, I would run to Thalia and Luke, who kept in touch with me through a payphone after their first visit three months after the move. From ages nine to fourteen, I was gone a total of 42 months, or three and a half years out of five. Fredrick didn't like all the negative attention, so when the Chase unit made the move to New York City, where we both knew Luke and Thalia were permanently living, he offered me a deal.

"You can spend time with them and live with them for all I care, but you need to visit the apartment once a week so I know you haven't made a break for it."

"What's the catch Fredrick?"

"I don't have child services at my door for neglecting you, and if they do think that, you go into the foster system."

Clearly, I took the offer. I wondered why they hadn't already been called at the time. Helen told me that the police recorded me and the length of all my disappearances and common crimes like stealing, breaking and entering, destruction of public property, avoiding the law, grand theft auto, breaking out of juvie, and a few other minor things. Basically, Fredrick said he'd take care of it and get someone to find me after a few months.

If you're wondering why I'm not behind in school, I taught myself and have a good record of that. Most people don't care about elementary or middle school, they care about high school. Since I haven't made a run in the last three years, my grades and such at Goode are almost perfect. In fact, I'm first in line for valedictorian.

"It's been what, five days?"

"Six actually, the week mark is tomorrow."

I sigh and play with the end of my ponytail. "I'll go visit real quick today, grab some clothes and stuff, and get out of there."

"Do you want me to drive you? You know I'm only a block away."

I shake my head horizontally. "I have practice today, and I'm getting Thals to come get me on her way home. Just worry that Leo's meeting your dad tonight."

Callie hits herself with the novel again. "I almost forgot about that."

* * *

The rest of the day runs as smoothly as ever. Mrs. Dodds and me arguing about an answer for half the class and I was right, but she couldn't accept that she made a mistake. At lunch, someone had the balls to try and trip me but I caught myself and saved my crappy school made lunch of a hamburger, fries, and milk with strawberries.

I turned my architecture project in, to make your own modern version of an architectural wonder and I did the Parthenon in Athens. I even drew it to the exact measurements as the original, 111 ft. by 228 ft or 30.9 meters by 69.5 meters. Of course, mine is a grand library and not a temple to a Greek goddess, although there is a marble statue of her inside. Sadly I need to stop fangirling because I still have to make a model after Ms. Nike grades it.

That currently leaves me admiring my test I recently got back in AP U.S. History with less than five minutes in class. Most people, including Calypso, had difficulties with it considering it was the test on the war of 1812 and aftermath. Calypso got an 87%, the second highest grade, while I got a percent score, highest grade. Mr. Brunner had said before he wouldn't curve the test like the last two, and probably won't for any other tests, so we can see if we need to improve our studying habits. Clearly, I thought I could nave prepared better, but I'm happy with the results. Callie seemed fine with what she got.

"I can see your test Annabeth. I want to see the right answers and why I chose the wrong ones."

"Sure, but remember Mr. Brunner's collecting them in a few minutes."

Callie nods and I carefully give her my test. With two minutes left, I look over my planner to checklist my homework. Read and take notes for Macbeth, a report and presentation in physics on black holes while we touch on astronomy and isn't due for two weeks, and psychology essay on your opinion on dreams, due tomorrow. Since practice is an hour after school, until 3:45, and I have my shift at Outback from 4:30-9:30, I usually am the first to go when it gets slow, but I'm okay with that, then I should have a most of due tomorrow done by midnight. If I'm not dead on my feet, I'll start start researching black holes until 1:00 A.M.

Callie puts my test on top of my planner and snaps her fingers in front of my face. I snap out of my planning zone and turn to Callie.

"Sorry, but I was just checking my time table."

"Yeah, I figured as much."

The final bell rings and we all pass our tests our to Mr. Brunner. He might be in a wheelchair, but he refuses for us to give him special treatment. He's wearing his tweed jacket today and gestures me over.

"See you tomorrow Callie, and good luck with your moon lace."

"You too Annabeth, and have fun at practice."

I hall my stuff over to where Mr. Brunner is organizing the tests in alphabetical order. I smile at the sight. Mr. Brunner has somehow been one of my teachers since freshmen year and has become my favorite teacher of all time. He might have inspired me to be a teacher if my heart wasn't dead set on being an architect. What he did accomplish was making me a tutor for certain people whenever there's an opening in my packed schedule and becoming a grandfather figure to me.

"What's up Chiron? Do you have an assignment for me?"

We also have this secret agent gag when Chiron wants my help.

"Why, yes, I do 00 Chase, but are you willing accept it?"

"Well, that all depends on the mission."

Chiron laughs. "It surprises me you still won't just take someone and not ask about them."

"Hey, I'm just making sure they're not killers." Or the people who torment me.

Chiron smiles again. "The boy has a low C in one of my basic history classes and is in your grade. I know he's trying his best and this is shown in all his work and projects, but just can't seem to do well on tests, and my tests take up half the grade percentage, and the reading. If his grades get any lower, he'll be taken off of the swimming team and they need him. Also, he's my second favorite student and can be quite the character."

For some reason, the first person who comes to my mind is one Seaweed Brain. But, surely, it can't be him. The odds of that happening, well, it's not impossible but it's unlikely. I bite my lip.

"What's his name?"

"Percy Jackson, do you know him?"

Yes, I know the annoying boy who can push my buttons better than anyone. It could be worse, like Ethan. Yet, I don't have the time to help him right now, unless I multitask and tutor him during swimming, or give up my lunch. Does he even have my lunch?

"Kind of and I'll think on it for a few days, okay?"

"I can't ask you to do any more. Just give me an answer by Friday."

Great, today's Tuesday so I don't have all that long to make a choice. "Will do Chiron. Now, I really have to get going."

He smiles up to his wise, old eyes. "I know, and good luck Annabeth."

I smile and wave, then walk out of the room to my locker. Luck? Luck isn't real. Hard work and determination are, and I've already got plenty of both.

* * *

Practice is a breeze like usual, but that's because running is as natural to me as breathing. That and I've had a lot of practice over the years. Ms. Nike, or Coach Nike at the moment, tells all of us practice is over and to go home at 3:37. While the rest of the girls chat and text on their phones, which are a decade ahead of mine, I go into the locker room.

Since I'm going to the house and work after, I have to now change out of my blue team shirt and grey shorts. When I pause to think about all the costume changes I pull off in a day, I give myself a headache. As I take off my shorts, I hear footsteps. I drop my jeans and grab a compact grey umbrella out of my locker, which I put here for bad situations.

"Well, the beautiful Beth has done half the work for me."

I do a 180 turn to be less than five feet away from Ethan. His black hair is crop cut military style. He's only an inch taller than my 5'9 frame, but is built like a wrestler. He still has one of his eyes covered with a leather black patch.

I expand my umbrella so that it's like Robin's martial arts weapon or a baseball bat. My heart races inside my chest, but I don't dare show how terrified I really am. I smirk. "Still hurt from last time Nakamura?"

He makes a tsk noise. He walks closer to me and I start to walk diagonally to the exit behind me. It's still too early for anyone to come in, if anyone comes in because most of the time they go straight home.

"Oh, don't be so feisty Beth. I know you liked it."

I'm backed up against a wall, both hands on the hilt. My hands shake a little, but I refuse to show any weakness. "No, I didn't like. Now, get the hell away from me before I hurt you again!"

That seemed to spark a reaction, just not the one I hoped for. Ethan makes a grab for my waist and I hit him upside the head with my umbrella stick. I hear a grunt of pain from him and keep striking. The boy just doesn't know when to give up though and pushed me up against the opposite wall. I kept clawing and kicking and hitting, but he ignored the pain I was inflicting. His hands wandered to places they shouldn't be touching and he slammed my spine on a combo lock, that's going to leave one hell of a bruise. I heard the sound of a zipper and I'm slammed against the lockers again. I didn't stop fighting, but I didn't dare scream because then I'd start crying and I wouldn't let this asshole get the satisfaction of me giving up.

Then, almost as suddenly as it started, he pulled out and drop me to the floor like a corpse. The floor was a mess that I have to clean up as soon as he leaves. Ethan darkly smiles. "That was fun and remember to clean up my mess Beth."

"Go to hell."

He turns back before he exits. "You too, Beth, you too."

I spit on his shoe and then he vanishes through the door. I then proceed to get up and pull my stupid underwear, a lot of good they did me, up from around my ankles. I go to the little bathroom on the far side of the locker room and snatch a bunch of paper towels and quickly clean up the floor. When it looks good enough, I finish changing my clothes and put the umbrella back inside my locker. I check my appearance in the mirror and there's no visible marks or injury, just a little fear left in my eyes but that will be gone along with the leftover adrenaline soon enough. I finally pick up my backpack and leave the locker room at 3:47, ten minutes after I first went in. It only felt like a minute.

As I'm turning a corner to the exit of the school, I run into someone. I notice black hair and that the figure is male and taller than me. My disappearing energy comes back instantly and duo flip the guy and put my foot on his chest. The only problem is that the person is about 6 ft. with a swimmer's frame and doesn't wear an eye patch since I can I see two sea green wide eyes looking up at me.

"Well, I didn't think I'd see you so soon Wise Girl. Could you kindly remove your foot and help me up?"

I blush, why am I blushing? I trade my foot with my hand. This boy must have a certain ability of popping into my life during the most inconvenient times. "I'm sorry about that, you reminded me of someone else."

He smiles. "Yeah, I got that much. This is actually nice though because I need to talk to you."

I groan internally. I really don't want to talk to anyone right now. "Shoot."

"Well, the team is still practicing during first period tomorrow, but I'll be doing my swimming during my last period study hall. That is, until I'm done being your swim coach."

"This concerns me ...?"

"Just bring something to do tomorrow and I'll try to keep you company as much as I can."

"Okay, that works for me."

Somehow we both are at the exit doors and Jackson holds one for me. I don't make a jab at him and instead search desperately for Thalia's black Toyota. She isn't anywhere to be seen yet.

I look over at Jackson who's standing a foot away and looking at me with concern. It makes a small part of me feel warm and fuzzy while most of me is scared and worried for myself.

"Are you okay Annabeth?"

The fact that he cares enough to ask hits me like the Statue of Liberty did when the Americans finished building it. Why does he care? I want to tell him to stay far away from me and my weird beautifully messed up life. I see Thalia's car enter the lock and I quickly give Percy a determined, cold look. "I'm fine." I then speed walk over to the Toyota and see him looking at me still. He doesn't buy the most common lie, but I really want him too.

* * *

I get in the car and close the door as fast as possible. The second it closes, Thalia drives off and looks me over with concern. "It was Ethan again, wasn't?

"No."

She briefly makes eye contact with me, electric blue on grey. Thalia's short spiking hair looks to almost be crackling with static and she grips the steering wheel so hard her fingers go white.

"Don't lie Annabeth."

The thing about Thalia that separates her from all the other women is the world to me is that she's both a mother and a sister to three kids with two not being related to her, I'm one of the them. She's the one who told me about periods when we were in Kansas. She's the one who sang me lullabies and told me stories before I went sleep. She's the one who taught me how to make ponytails and braid. Thalia's also one of the most stubborn people ever as shown by running away at eleven to try and locate Jason, but also one of the most considerate since she partnered up with Luke, which slowed her down, and they both took me in. She still worries the most about me because while Leo and Jason are safe, I'm not and she knows it. She got Luke to respect my decisions, even though she hated it, because she knew how hard it was to get into college. She got to attend community college with Luke and herself paying for it, so she wants better for the three of us and puts all her extra funds in a savings along with Luke, who is taking courses on line and almost done.

"Yes, it was. Can we not talk about it and just go to Fredrick's house?"

Thalia sighed. "Almost there Annie. Want me to go in with you?"

"Could you just wait at the front door Thals?"

She nods and makes the turn onto the street. It's about five minutes away from school and part of the upper middle class since Fredrick's a college history professor and Helen is a wedding planner. The twins, Bobby and Mathew, go to some nice private school and the two twelve year olds have a British nanny named Mary Peters, I honestly believe she's the reincarnation of Mary Poppins. I have a room here, but there's more decoration in the living at Thalia and Luke's apartment than in there.

Thals and I both got out of the car and walked into the building. One elevator ride and walking later, I'm knocking on the door to Fredrick's house, technically apartment. I'm not surprised when Mary opens the door.

"Well, come in and take care of your business Miss Chase."

I give Mary a smile and walk into the apartment and to my room. I pass Fredrick's study and knock on the doorway. A blond, greying head of hair looks up at me through a pair of glasses. The man looks tired like he just finished a lecture and waves me off, stating he's seen me. I continue my journey and think about what to grab from my given room.

I walk in to see the floor is covered with Lego play sets and some of my old buildings. Two heads of brown hair seem to be making a set from the Lego movie turned to look at me with Asian shaped light brown eyes. I smile at them and make my way to the closet. I take a plastic bag out of my backpack and start putting clothes in; jeans, sweats, shirts, underwear, bras, socks, my whole suit, and a hoodie. I also picked up my snow boats because you never know what the weather might do.

I exit the closet looking like a female Santa Claus and the twins smiling at me. I smile at them yet again. I carry no ill will towards them, they do the same in return. I'm more like a mythical creature than a sister to them anyway and neither need to know where I live or that I work at an Australian themed steakhouse.

Bobby grabs my leg, stopping me from leaving. "Annabeth, Mathew and I found something in the mail."

I raise an eyebrow. "Is it from Goode?"

Bobby shakes his head no. "It didn't say who it was from and was addressed to you, full name too."

Now that was more than a little strange. Mathew, who I didn't see leave the room, comes back with a cool grey envelope and hands it to me.

"Bobby and I have been hiding it in our Lego vault for about how long long Bobby?"

"Over a month Matt, and really tried to get it to you."

I ruffle their hair. "But you couldn't tell your parents because they would open it and I don't come over when you're home usually." I slip the letter into my bag. "I'll open it later today, and see you around."

Both boys wave to me as I leave and make my way to the front door where Thals and Mary are discussing children's educational programs. Thalia sees me coming and takes the bag from my hand and politely says bye to Mary. If Thals sees the envelope, she doesn't say anything about it.

When we both get in her car it's about four, so we have to rush back home. I turn on the radio and a Green Day song is playing. Thalia starts humming it and I look the window.

The second we get home, I rush inside the apartment building to get changed, again, into my work uniform. Leo and Jason appear to be doing their homework but are making a game plan to get Yankee playoff tickets as I come out of the bathroom, or my person changing room.

"You two better get me one!"

"Cool down chica, we included you."

I still see Jason add another figure into their plan. I roll my eyes and run out the door. Thalia looks tired with her planning binder under one arm. "I'll take the subway Thals!"

She shakes her head as I run past. "You're wearing the shoes Luke got for you right?"

I pull my pant leg up so she can rest easy. "Yeah, I'm carrying. Now, go spend time with your brother and his best friend."

I continue my journey and I get there drama free and early. Silena, the hostess and an aspiring designer, is waiting with her brown hair pulled back in a bun and blue eyes shining in the lighting. She smiles warmly at me and hands me my notepad.

"I have a feeling it's going to be busy, but I'll send you home as soon as possible."

"Thanks Sil, now let's get this diner started."

* * *

Silena kept her word and I was free to go at five to ten. I say my good-byes to the others; Clarisse, Hylla, Miranda, and Castor. I wrap my blue Goode hoodie a little tighter around me since the temperature dipped below freezing.

There are stilling people rushing about, though a lot less than when the sun's out. It's silly that so many are scared of what lurks in the dark in NYC, they clearly haven't been to LA. That doesn't mean I'm strolling and taking my time though.

I make it to a pretty deserted subway station and luckily catch a train a few minutes after. The train itself is basically a ghost town except for a few tattoo covered teenage boys. I take a seat far away from them and hope they're not stupid or drunk.

Sadly, one of them is drunk as he almost falls on his face walking over to me. The guy holds on to one of the rails on the ceiling and stands next to me. I don't know who he is and don't want to. So when he tries to touch my face, I pull my pocket knife out of the sole of my sneaker.

The guy jumps back and raises his hand, then chuckles. "Do you know to use that, girlie?"

I glare and my noise scrunches in disgust from the alcohol scent coming feet away from his mouth. "Do you know how to get beat up?"

He took that as a challenge. "Marrow Sucker, Joe Bob, come help me teach blondie not to mess with the Laistrygonians!"

His two drunk friends stumble over and I extend my pocket knife smirking. "Bring it on morons."

I usually don't pick fights with gangs, but it's a great way to re-leave stress and sometimes they ask for it. Does this mean I'm stupid? No, because I don't pick fights I can't win. Am I crazy? That one's still up for debate.

I hit the guy near me on the side of his head with the blunt end of my weapon. I'm proud to say that instantly knocks him out before his friends can get to me. I turn to face the two giant men, one having a blade and the other his own fists. I go for the guy with the blade and easily disarm him and cut his elbow. The drunken moron backs away and cups it in pain. I can see his eyes almost somber up when he sees one of his friends unconscious. To bad the last fighter hasn't realized what he's up against. I close my knife and make a come at me gesture, and he does all to fast. I side step and swipe his feet out from under him, so he lands on his butt. The man gets up, but not without pain. He tries to punch me in the face, but I duck and hit him in the gut. He clutches his belly and I give him a nice shot in the face.

I hear my station's name and the doors open on the train. As I walk off, I give them a smirk. "Guess you do know how to get beat up." The door closes before they can follow me off, and I wave as they punch the doors of the moving train.

I grab a napkin from a closed Starbucks and clean up my bloody knife. Then I do a quick once over, not even a scratch. I snort at the irony. I can take on three men bigger than me and win, but I can't stop people like Ethan.

I get to street level and place the knife back in my shoe and throw away the napkin. The streets are still quiet, but no one else bothers me. I enter the apartment and see Papa John's on the kitchen table along with Jason, Leo, and Luke waiting there for me.

Luke's arms are crossed and I can tell he knows about Ethan and that I got into some fight since he can sense adrenaline. His scar that crosses his left eye to mid cheek makes me feel careless. Luke got that scar when he was seventeen and saving me from a group in LA. His blond hair looks light grey in the dark lighting and his light blue eyes slightly re-leaved.

"Are you going to stand there Annie or come tell me about your day?"

I smile and plop down in my chair. If Thalia is my mom, then Luke is my dad and he gets how hard it is to deal with almost anything except school and girl related. He ran away at nine from a mentally unstable mother and like me, Luke never got a male role model in his father, who he only met once when we had to visit his mother. When tells the story of meeting Thalia, he leaves out the brawl she saved his butt in and instead says that was moment he first experienced love, he just didn't know it yet. Later the two found me, and he took on the responsibility of being my dad, like Thals did my mom. He taught me sports and how to fight with a blade, Thals did hand to hand, and they both found ways for me to continue my education. As years went on, our family only got stronger and bigger, but he always showed me that he cared in some way.

I grab a slice with sausage and olives. "Well, school was pretty normal, except I'm going to be swimming after school for three weeks."

Jason grabs what must be his second slice. "Sure Annabeth, and you'll start working on weekends."

"No Jase, I have to do it to pass gym."

Leo takes his second slice, leaving one left from the eight slice pizza. "Don't they give you the option to take it during gym class, hermana?"

"Yeah, Nico and his friends are starting to take it tomorrow in gym."

Luke looks at the boys. "Just trust Annabeth probably has a good reason, along a super long story to go with it. Now, can you two go do your homework?"

They both nod and go off to their shared room, probably to continue their ticket plan, which leaves Luke and me alone. I rip the last piece in thirds, and hand Luke one while I finish my first. Luke softly smiles. "Okay Annabeth, tell me what else happened today."

I sigh. "Just let me grab my homework and I'll talk and work."

He chuckles. "If only Leo had your homework ethic."

I take out a piece of paper and start the essay along with the incredibly long tale that started in gym. He nods and listens as I shift to my notes on Macbeth and how Chiron wants me to tutor Percy. I pull out my Delta laptop and start researching black holes while telling about this blind date I had to wait on. So, after about fifty minutes, I had all my websites, had finally finished my story, and it's only 11:30. The notes took less time than I thought and so did the essay.

I look up at look to see Thals sitting next to him and the two are paying bills and planning the boys' physical check ups for basketball. "When did you get here Thals?"

She smiles. "At the point where you duo flipped that boy. Also, remind Nico to come over here with Hazel this weekend. I haven't seen those two in ages."

Luke and I snort. We both know she saw them last weekend at their place. She just knows Nico will try to get out of it if he's not reminded, it's their gag.

I smirk. "Will do Thals. Now, can I take my shower?"

Luke gave me a look. "Fine, just try not to pick fights with drunk gang members, unless it's self defense."

I sigh. "You know it was for that reason."

He sighed and ruffles my curls. "Just be careful, Annie."

"Couldn't have said it any better Luke." Thals gives the same version of affection.

The rest of the night goes on as usual; shower, finish third of food, finish homework, and sleep. I forget the envelope and I promise myself I'll open it come morning.

 **I don't own PJO or HoO. Please review or don't. Also, thanks to anyone who viewed, followed, or favorited this story  
**


	3. Chapter 3

_People always think that the big things change your life, but the small things do too._

* * *

It's early when my alarm goes off, but that's just because it's my day to set up breakfast. I stretch like a cat on the couch before getting up and folding the blanket. I make my way to the kitchen where Thals and Luke are both having granola bars and coffee in the same chair. I shake my head at them.

"You two can cuddle and do stuff later or you'll be late."

They both sigh and start grabbing their coats and such. Thalia crosses her arms. "I hope your happy."

I smirk. "Very." I hear Luke head out calling a "bye" and I can't seem to find any bread. "Thalia did you go to the store yesterday and get more bread?"

"No, hump day is when we go shopping and that's today."

I face palm. "Why is it that I always have to make the exotic, on the fly breakfast."

"Just give them a granola bar each." I look at her and we both laugh. "Okay, that's a stupid idea, but you'll come up with something. See ya!"

"Bye Thalia!" She too heads out the door. Alone at last and now I have to make breakfast. I open the freezer to see there are some old frozen waffles, that will work. I get myself a strawberry Greek yogurt from the fridge and a spoon. Before I even eat, I put the waffles in the toaster and get ready for the day.

I find a 76th Hunger Games tee and some old faded jeans. To contain my curls, I braid my hair like Katniss. I pack a towel and my whole suit in a plastic bag and stuff it into my backpack. I hear the toaster ding and head back to the kitchen. I place the waffles on a plate and place the last two in the toaster. As I dig into my yogurt and sip my black coffee, I feel like I'm forgetting something important. I'm wearing clothes and shoes, have everything packed, made breakfast, what could I be forgetting?

I hear footsteps and look up to see Jason and Leo eying the waffles with hunger. The toaster dings again and I look at the two of them. "Are you going to just stand there looking at the food or are you going to eat it?" I get my answer as Leo rushes to the toaster and Jase scoops up the two on the plate.

"No fair Leo."

"Jase, you still get the same waffle amount."

"They're warm and yours are hot."

"That's because I'm hot and your not Superman, deal with it."

"That's enough Leo, and you too Jason. I'm trying to think."

Leo taps his chin with his waffle. "What could possibly be thinking about chica?"

Jason smirks. "She's always thinking Leo."

I mock glare at him. "Actually, I think I'm forgetting something, but it has nothing to do with school." I look at the clock. "We have to leave in ten, you have no excuse to look like slobs today." They grumble and head off to get ready.

I didn't remember in ten minutes. I didn't remember on the walk to the station. I didn't remember on the subway. By the time I got off, I just screwed over trying to remember. Sadly, I know it'll come back and slap me upside the head.

* * *

This morning was as normal as ever, minus a quick stop by Mr. Brunner's room to borrow a book, and now I was stuck in the pool area. It's sectioned in half, one side swim team and the other side freshmen doing their time. It was a little smaller than a regulation Olympic pool and the deep end where the swim team, or a certain talented few, are practicing diving and has a depth of twenty-five feet is also off limits.

I can see Percy yelling commands and encouragement in short blue trunks. It's a good thing too because I don't think I could handle him a speedo. Okay, I'm not even going to ask where that came from brain. He'd gotten in the pool and swam a few laps, and beating everyone in the practice races.

I'm doing something far less physical, taking notes on black holes. No, I'm not using my flip phone. I could since it's a touch screen but the words are too small to read clearly, so I'm using my laptop. I can tell it's pissing Coach Kym off, but I'm making good use of my time. I notice Percy get out of pool and make his way over to my little dry spot. I close my laptop and clutch it dearly.

"Don't come anywhere near me unless you're 3/4 dry, or at least the upper half of you."

Percy puts his hands up in surrender. "Well, you're sitting on my towel."

I pull the towel out from underneath me. It's big and blue, just plain blue. I toss it at Seaweed Brain and he catches it. I clear room for him and pat the bleacher. He smiles and wraps the towel around his shoulders.

"You're in a better mood today."

"I got enough sleep."

"I don't think sleep had anything to do with it, and there was a 76th hunger games? I thought it stopped after the third quell thing."

I face palm. "It does stop after that. In the books, Finnick Odair calls the planning to storm/storming of the Capitol the 76th hunger games due to all the booby traps similar to the games. It could also be because Plutarch designed them and he was head game maker, but I haven't read the books in a while."

"Hey, stop it with the spoilers. I didn't read the books Wise Girl."

I cross my arms. "What's wrong with reading Seaweed Brain?"

He awkwardly rubs the back of his neck. "There's nothing wrong with it. It's just harder for me to read than the average person."

"Well, the average American adult reads at around an 8th grade level, so I'm guessing you're in that range too?" He looks a little agitated, like people have told him this before. "I'm not calling you stupid. If you read more books, it'll probably get easier for you to read."

Percy makes the most adorable pout. "But I don't like reading because it's hard, so I won't read and I don't get better."

I smirk. "Well, you seem to be stuck in a never ending cycle. If you keep this up Seaweed Brain, how are you going to keep your grade up history?"

He pauses, clearly thinking about what to say next. He seems a little ashamed of this fact, and I feel bad for just stating it like that. I'm not friends with him, I can't act like I am. Not only is it awkward for him, but I'm making myself vulnerable.

"How do you know that? Who told you?" His voice held a bit of anger, but it wasn't entirely directed at me, and a drop of betrayal.

I calmly pull a U.S. history book out of my laptop bag. Percy eyed it curiously. Chiron had gladly given me an extra and applauded me for going the distance to help someone. That wasn't my full reasoning though. Percy is one the few people who care about me and he doesn't even know me. I'd feel like a bitch if I just screwed over helping him when he's never done me any harm.

"Mr. Brunner asked me to help tutor you and I agreed."

He seemed more relieved. "I told him I didn't need any help, no offense."

"Well, when someone is offering help you need, you do the wise thing and accept it." Hypocrite, you would never dream of doing that, my conscience tells me. "Now, will you let me tutor you or can I return this book?"

Percy briefly thinks it over and sighs. "Yeah, but don't blame yourself if I don't improve."

I proudly smile. "I haven't failed before, and I won't let you be the first."

His green pools light up for some reason and he smiles. "Thanks Wise Girl."

"Okay, shall we begin?"

Percy swiftly looks over to the pool and then the clock. "Why not."

It takes about five minutes for Percy to explain the average U.S. history Chiron teaches have yet to finish the chapter about the War of 1812 and the after math. Included in those minutes is explaining what has already been taught and figuring out what page the 3rd lesson starts. In our defense, Percy doesn't use the book all that much and even though mine is similar, it's not the same and the font is small and really curly.

While the first two lessons deal with the origins and declaration of the war, lesson 3 talks about the beginning of the war. The only things I could make out were about Britain fighting in other conflicts and the army in the U.S. having few people in the first few paragraphs. I could tell Percy was having more trouble than myself since his face was scrunched up in concentration and frustration.

"Well Seaweed Brain, your book sucks."

"You don't say Wise Girl? Mr. Brunner bases everything off this thing, so I usually just study the handouts he gives us."

"He actually gives you handouts?"

"More like one or two for background, and I fill in the worksheets using Wikipedia."

Under normal circumstances, I'd lecture that Wikipedia is nice but it's not always right. But with this book and his difficult reading, I'll withhold that rant. Now that I think about, he reminds me of myself when reading really tiny and curly fonts.

"Why is reading so hard for you Seaweed Brain?"

Percy looks a little surprised by the question and embarrassed as he nervously bites his cheek. "I kind of have a condition."

I softly smile. "You're dyslexic."

His mouth falls open. "How did you know?"

"Takes a person with it to know, or a doctor of some kind."

"But you're smart."

I shake my head. "It just takes me more time and mine is mild, yours seems worse."

Percy chuckles. "Yeah, I guess it is."

We sit in silence for a few moments after that. I felt like Percy and I had just formed some type of bond through the last few minutes. Less than a dozen people at Goode know about my dyslexia and I think the same goes for Seaweed Brain. So, now that I think about it, I just gave him my trust. Trust is such a fragile and precious thing to me. Hopefully, I didn't just make a terrible decision.

I check the clock to see we have a good ten minutes left. "How about I tell you some tricks I use to make reading easier."

He shrugs. "Sure, but they might not work for me."

For the rest of time, I tell him about audio books, we find the shitty history book one on my Delta, and other tech that can help. I explain the importance of time management and not to cram it all in one session. I tell him to be more confident and never give up, no matter of daunting. At the same time, he joked that I was a bookworm and he didn't have his "sea legs" and was a "fish out of water" when it came to reading off a bound paper source. I shot back similar remarks through my laughs. I know he probably heard most of it before, but maybe he'll put in a little more effort.

Finally, we hear Coach Kym yell for the Freshmen to get out of the pool and the swimmers are already heading to the locker rooms. I sadly sigh, I was enjoying Percy's company and the warm fuzzy feeling that came with it. It doesn't matter, because after he improves and my swimming is over we'll return back to our separate worlds. As much as I would like to be a part of his, I don't want him to be a part of mine.

He gives me a smile. "See you after school Wise Girl."

"See you too."

We both get up and journey our separate ways. For some unusual reason I look back, and pretend I don't make eye contact since he's doing the same thing.

* * *

The school day drags on, I talk with Callie, eat shitty food, yet something feels ... different. It shouldn't, I mean nothing major has occurred, but it does. Tell Calypso this while we're enjoying the last few minutes of Mr. Brunner's class. She listens carefully, like I did when she told me her dad approves of Leo and that story spanned twenty minutes.

"I just don't see why it feels this way. I didn't even walk past the high bathroom today, so I can't even blame drugs."

Callie smiles. "Well, from what I can tell, the only thing that's different is that you've fully made peace with Percy Jackson."

I laugh and shake my head. "It can't be that. I mean, we're sort of friends and I don't make new friends everyday, but that shouldn't change my world."

Callie gives an innocent look. "Unless, of course, you secretly don't want to be his friend."

"What?"

"You have a crush, like him, want him to be your prince charming."

"Um, no and no and you know I hate Cinderella with a burning passion, so no to infinity."

She shrugs. "I felt the same thing with Leo, and look where I am now."

I make a look of disgust. "No offense Calypso, but I'm not dating anyone until college or they're exactly what I'm looking for."

Callie gives me a pointed look. "You aren't looking for anyone, and honestly, you probably never will. You don't need a boyfriend Annabeth, that's not what I'm saying, but you're going to want someone someday."

That was pretty spot on, but could I ever trust and care about some guy enough to do that? I know it's real, I live with a couple I've seen develop and mature for years, but I just can't see that for myself. My mother clearly didn't, and there's some truth in the saying "like mother like daughter".

The bell rings and I bid Callie fair well as I head from my locker to the pool area with all my stuff. I kept looking over my shoulder as I was making my way to the locker room, I know Ethan probably won't do anything for a week at least but you can never be too careful.

Once I make it inside, I quickly change into my plain green suit. I undo my braid and put it in a ponytail, then grab my towel and goggles. Since I'm not a member of the swim/diving team or swimming during gym, I can't use the locker rooms near the pool, a Coach Kym rule. They're both connected by the pathetic shower area, the water pressure and temperature are horrible, so I can walk through it to get to the pool instead of walking through the halls.

The place is nice with changing stalls, lockers, bathroom, hairdriers, and nice tile floors rather than chipped. No one is in here, and it gives me this uneasy feeling. I know there's a low number of girls, so it shouldn't be that strange.

I open the door to the pool to see people swimming and diving, just like first period. I also notice Percy in his trunks, waiting and tapping his foot next to the pool. For some reason, I think it's sweet.

I quietly sneak up behind him. "So, how are we going to do this?"

Percy jumps a foot in the air and into the pool. It looked like a weird messed up dive that I'll call "the spaz". I roll my eyes and dive in at about seven feet. I surface to see Percy treading and glaring at.

"Has anyone ever warned you about sneaking up on people?"

I smirk. "You gave me the opportunity, blame yourself."

He then splashes me, but it does little harm since I'm wearing goggles. I don't splash him back because he has his goggles on. I open my mouth to to tell him this and he splashes me in the mouth. I choke for a few seconds after that little surprise.

"What was that for?"

"I'm checking how good your swimming skills are. Since you're still treading and only mildly pissed, you're a good one."

I groan. "Why didn't you just ask me?"

"This is more fun, but I do have to ask you what strokes you can do since your treading and diving is fine."

For the next minute or so, I respond to questions about strokes and kicks. Percy then lays out a plan.

"Since it's just me, you, and a lap lane, we can do all the strokes and such in the first two weeks and goof off the rest."

"Nice, but where's Coach Kym?"

Percy rolls his eyes. "She has to watch her niece and nephews from 2:30-4:30, so I'm in charge. Shall we begin with freestyle laps?"

"Yeah, but I'm not racing you."

Percy pouts and using the cutest seal eyes. Don't give in. "Why not?"

"Because I'm not an idiot or fast."

I then start my lap with Percy starting right after. I notice how he's keeping pace with me and not speeding ahead. I smile a bit, knowing he won't see. We continue like this, up and down and side by side, for what seems like forever yet no time at all. Eventually, Percy stops swimming and I come to a halt next to him. We're in the shallow end, so we both stand.

"What is it?"

"We've finished for today. Remember Annabeth, tomorrow we'll be doing side kick so it'll take a bit longer."

I check the clock to see that we have indeed been swimming for forty minutes and the pool has less bodies in it. I don't want it to be over though. I want to keep swimming and that may be childish, but I don't care. I sigh and swim over to the side and climb out. I grab my towel off of a bench.

"See you tomorrow Seaweed Brain."

He smiles up at me as he climbs. "Right back at you Wise Girl."

* * *

I survive the locker room, I think it's sad when that always becomes a personal achieve the day after. The rest of the day goes smoothly from home to work and back home to do school work. I think today might have just been average after all, that is until my flip phone rings.

Like a lot of people, I have caller ID. The only problem was that it was Fredrick who was calling. I honestly try to get a few words out of him whenever I can, but I never liked the idea of talking with him on the phone. I'm not a friend he can call past midnight, like he's doing now, and the only reason is ever calls is to tell me something I did or didn't do. So, I let it go and see if he'll leave a message.

After five rings, the message beep sounds. Okay, moment of truth, does he care enough to leave a message.

"Annabeth this is Fredrick." Of course it is, but at least you're talking to me. "Someone wants to meet you and has tried to get in contact with you herself." Strange, who in Fredrick's circle would want such a thing. "Clearly, that didn't work out or you chose not to see her." I don't even know who this woman is. How can I chose not to see her if I don't know what's going on? "Either way, she still wants to meet you and I know because I've been on the phone with her for hours, coming up with excuses to why you can't answer." Great, it's probably child services then. "So, I told her when and where you work, and she'll be visiting you tomorrow." Nice to know you'd sell me out, but I figured you'd do that anyway. "I'm sorry about her before hand, now good bye." Why would he be sorry?

The message ended and I felt very out of the loop. Still, I can't avoid her, who ever she is, now like I avoid the Chase family unit. I yawn. Well, I can worry about all of this tomorrow.

 **I still don't own PJO or HoO. A big thanks to all you have been reviewing, following, and favoriting, because I really appreciate it.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

_No matter how cold or mean people are, everyone has feelings, so think before you speech.  
_

* * *

I greet the pool area with my Delta and a few other "help Percy pass" supplies. I see him on the bleachers with his own stuff, waving me over. A smile graces my face and his grows bigger. For some reason, whenever I'm around Percy I just feel happy. The sad thing is that most of my good mood vanishes along with him. It's weird, sad, pathetic, and I've only known him about two days.

Still there's a spring in my step as I hurry up the bleachers to reach him. Surprising, he has all of his stuff out, minus the book from hell, and ready to go. I sat down next to him and could hear him humming "Fun" from Spongebob.

"Seriously? Can't you hum a catchy song at least?"

"It is catchy. I mean 'F is for friends who do stuff together, U is for you and me', now that's deep."

I roll my eyes and laugh. "No, it's for a kid's cartoon that was supposed to be for adults. It's like singing Disney songs, you don't do it in public."

"Want to bet?"

"You wouldn't dare."

Percy smirks and starts belting "Under the Sea" out at max volume. "What have they got, lots of sand? We've got a hot crustacean band-"

I start laughing. "Please stop singing and save it for your shower. We have to get you a B."

"Not until you burst randomly into song Wise Girl."

I pause, then glare. "I don't sing in public."

"I'm not asking for a Disney song, any one is fine."

I bite my lip. I've only sang in front of the four people I live with and Callie. I've never sang in any music class, the subway, buses, or anywhere else because... well I don't know actually. It draws attention and I hate that, so that's probably the answer.

"Do I have to?"

Percy looks at me with concern. "If you're scared-"

"I'm not scared."

"Okay, sing the next song that plays on the radio."

I realize that Coach Kym had turned on the radio. I blame Percy's screaming, I mean singing. I hear the announcer say they're back from commercial break and I prepare myself. Hopefully it's not rap or hip hop. Thankfully, I recognize the song as a 2001 number that Thals would sing sometimes. I add a few words and leave others out because I don't remember completely.

"I'm making my way downtown, walking fast, faces pass, and I'm homebound. Staring blankly a head, just making my way, yeah making my way, through this crowd." I can't tell what instrument Percy starts tapping out with his pencils, but it matches pretty well.

"And I need you."

Tap, tap, tap of a pencil.

"And I misss you."

Tap, tap, tap of pencils.

"Now I wander..."

"If I could fall, into the lie, do you think life would pass me by? Because you know I'd walk a million miles to be with you tonight."

I didn't sing it all that loud or past that point, but it was enough for people to look over at us. I blush and realize I probably look like a weirdo. Percy's smile makes it all worth it though.

"Well, you did good, even if you got some words wrong. I can't judge because there's a song called "I'm high on Mexican monkeys" that I sing on the subway."

I raise an eyebrow. "Don't you mean "I'm up all night to get lucky"?"

It's Percy turn to be embarrassed. "I guess it is, so that's why I won't complain as stated in the last example."

"Thanks, now you should start your work."

He pulls the seal pout. "Can't we goof off for another few minutes?"

I sigh and press my fingers to the bridge of my nose. "No you need to work on typing flashcards that I'll print later."

"Can I still sing Disney songs?"

"Um, how about no. You can sing whatever comes on the radio Seaweed Brain."

"Fine, but you have to sing some with me Wise Girl."

"Why?"

"So you don't feel left out of the team."

"What team? If anything this is a duo."

"Technicalities, but please."

Damn that seal pout. "Fine, but I'll stop if you don't get at least half done."

He fists bumps the air in victory. "You won't regret this."

I smirk and carefully hand over my Delta. "Don't make me."

For the rest of the period, we sang and worked through what Percy had to do like the seven dwarfs. We're not terrible but we're not the best singers either, but we learn that we're pencil tapping pros. We continued to get a few looks, but everyone got used to it half way through. Eventually, it came to an end like all good things must. I sigh and pack up my laptop and Percy packs his stuff in his backpack. I feel myself come down from my Percy high and I'm not lovin it.

It's stupid. I have had my fair share of crushes, six, all before the age of fifteen. After freshmen year, I stopped thinking about romantic options and looked toward college instead. None of the past boys have ever made me feel this way. Maybe it's becausePercy Jackson's special that's why, okay thought blocking that.

I finish packing up and see him standing up waiting for me. I smile and pull myself up. "See you Seaweed Brain, I have to go take notes on Shakespeare."

Percy face turns into one of disgust. "I hate that guy and see you too Annabeth."

I turn and walk down to wait for the freshmen to be done. After a few seconds, Nico comes over looking rather happy and amused.

"Did someone give you a happy meal or were you checking Will out the whole class."

Nico face erupted in red. "I-I wasn't-I mean-I-"

"Save it di Angelo. You're not the only detective in town."

The red started to vanish and a grin spread like the plague. "True Chase, so how are things going with Percy?"

It's now my chance to turn cherry. "I blame the stupid seal pout." Nico looks at me like I'm crazy. "Never mind."

"The fact that you labeled one of his expression shows that you care."

I glare. "I don't care."

"Yes, you do. There's nothing wrong with that."

I run my fingers through my let down curls. "Nico, what if he knows all my dirty little secrets and his whole opinion of me changes, hates me, stops talking to me, or he wants to get involved?"

Nico pulls me away from the herd and into an alcove under the bleachers. "He won't hate you or anything like that Annabeth. The most likely course of action is that he tries to fix everything."

"I'm just as worried about that as the others."

"Then try to not get attached or tell him only one or two."

It's actually not a bad idea, and I get to pick. I nod in approval. "Thanks Nico. Oh, Thals wants you to come over for movies this weekend."

Nico was about to complain when Will pops his head in the alcove. "Come guys, time to go."

Nico gets out with Will and follows him over to Lou and Cecil. I shake my head at them and trail the crowd of freshmen.

* * *

Callie and I go through the day with ease and are using lunch to relax at our tiny table like every other day. We also use this time to discuss what the weekend and Friday looks like.

"I'm helping Leo with Festus tomorrow."

"How's the Mcshizzle's car at the moment?"

"It'll only be a few more months at the most and a paint job."

"Figures, but he better give me a ride."

"I don't think he'll drive it to school. He's works part time at a car repair shop, he won't waste that money for gas to school."

"Good point. Do you want to come over this weekend?"

"Isn't it the movie marathon?"

"Yes, and Jason is bringing Piper while Hazel invited Frank and Nico's friend group to their home."

"So, hosts can bring non family?"

"Yep, we started that about two months ago so we could all finally meet Piper not through Jason and Leo. Hasn't Leo asked you?"

Callie shakes her head. "I usually spend time with my five older sisters on Saturdays, so Leo probably didn't want to ruin that."

"Well are they coming over?"

"No."

"Then I invite you to come over to prank Leo and Jason for revenge."

We talk a little more, then I feel that I might pee myself. "I'm going to head to the bathroom."

"Okay, just hurry because there's less than fifteen minutes left."

I nod and quickly start the walk to the bathroom. It's not that far away, but half way there, I feel like I'm being watched. Panic fills my whole being. I break into a sprint done the empty hallways and dive into the bathroom. Before I can even make it to a stall, someone grabs my wrist. I want it desperately to be a teacher, but I know it's not.

"Let go of me Nakamura."

I feel a mouth next to my ear. "Not going to happen Beth."

I struggle. "Get the hell off my wrist, or I'll kick you in where the sun don't shine."

He grabs my other wrist and I do kick him there. He doesn't fall down, but his grip tightens and I can't feel my feet on the ground. I keep kicking and squirming as I'm carried into the wheel chair stall. Ethan turns me around to face him and tosses me to the floor. I land on my but and stop my head from hitting the door. He keeps my arms over my head as it starts to happen, but I don't stop fighting. I see he's wearing the usual, because he doesn't want to chance leaving any proof. It hurts my wrists, it hurts my lower areas, it hurts my back to me picked up each time and slammed, and it just hurts. I don't scream, I don't cry, and I don't talk. After what feels like a life time, the final slam occurs and a condom thrown to the floor. Ethan lifts up me up by his hands at my throat area.

"Let this me a lesson Beth. I don't like it when you spend time in a pool close to another guy. You think I wouldn't find out?" I know he can't tel, butl I freeze for a second. I knew he would find out, I just hoped it would take longer. "You're mine Beth, and you better remember that." He squeezes at my windpipe until I'm choking before dropping me. I land on my feet and crumble to my knees. I glare up at him as he exits the stall.

"There is no way to express how much I hate you, and the day you own me is a day that will never come to pass you asshole!" I don't scream it, but I say it with enough force and venom and volume that he tenses and briefly turns around.

He gestures to myself and the stall. "What do you call this then?"

I glare and stand up. "I call this a crime and this is the scene of it."

Ethan smirks. "You're still going to clean it up Beth."

He walks off. I sigh and go pee quickly. I take some tp and clean the floor. There's not much to clean up this time and I flush the evidence down the drain. I then go to check myself for any noticeable injuries. My wrists look a little bruised, but throat thankfully doesn't appear to have been choked that badly. My head and back are fine. I know I bruised my butt. I just pull down my hoodie sleeves and pull up the neck.

I wash my hands and fake smile in the mirror. You'll be fine, I tell myself. In reality, I was scared shit less and in need of a good hug.

I swiftly make my way back to the cafeteria to see eleven minutes passed and that lunch is almost over. Before I can get there, I get water dumped over me. I look sides ways and see it's a group of girls from my grade. I don't feel bad that I don't know their names because they then proceed to throw glitter at me along with some other things. They giggle and snap photos and leave.

I pull out my flip phone and ask Callie if she can bring my stuff to the nurse and to skip math with me. She quickly texts back an agreement. I hurry to the nurse and almost make it unseen, until I run into someone coming out.

"Holy shit Wise Girl! You're covered in everything from Home EC to the art rooms."

I look up to see Percy, kind, understanding, loyal Percy and almost greedily take his out stretched hand. I can see Callie, who knows almost all my skeletons, come down the other end with my stuff.

"Don't worry Annabeth, I stopped by your locker and got you a change of clothes."

I smile at her, but get glitter and something wet in my mouth. I spit it out. "Thanks Callie." I notice Percy is still holding my hand and I blush. "Seaweed Brain, don't you have English in about five seconds?"

His face looked full of care and determination. "I think I'll stay here."

I was about to protest, but Callie stops me. "Just let him, besides the nurse and Mr. D are doing things right now, so no one's in there."

I don't have the energy to protest against both of them. "Fine, you can clean my dirty clothes and I need you to let go of my hand."

His turns a light shade of pink and does as instructed. "On it."

Callie rolls her eyes and we all go in. The nurse's office is like a mini hospital with a shower included-oh the bell just rang- and a stash of medical supplies. I head over to the shower, close the curtains, and toss Calypso my glittery clothes. I then proceed to do what people do in showers as fast as possible, clean.

"Callie, can you toss me a towel and my clothes." In response get a towel to the face and catch the rest. "Thanks!" Once I'm dressed, I get out and head over to the secret stash of rice crispy treats and grab three. Callie is sitting on a bed and I plop down to forge passes. Percy then sits down next to me with my now clean wet clothes in a plastic bag.

I look into his eyes full of concern and care. I almost want to tell him everything and just stupidly sob in his arms for an hour, but I don't. All this does is prove he can't deal with the rest of my secrets and slightly messed up world. I finish the notes and start eating my snack along with Callie. Percy carefully takes it, but eats it faster than either of us. Eventually, we all finish and there's this dangerous silence that a certain someone breaks.

"I'm guessing this happens often enough if you know where the snacks are stored. I didn't even know there are snacks."

I smile softly. "Well, most people usually aren't crazy or stupid enough to pull crap on me. That means they've been planning for a while, but I'd have to say this happens every month or so."

Percy looks shocked. "Are you kidding me?"

Callie shrugs. "Actually they mess with her lockers every week or two."

"And you haven't told your parents or got a teacher involved?"

I sigh. "I don't need to Jackson. I have a plan."

He raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms. "And what is your plan? Let a much of jealous, insecure people pick on you for self esteem until you graduate?" I could sense anger, but I don't know if it's directed at me, the girls who did this, or the situation.

"No, my plan stops them my senior year, and no, I will not go all Margo on them." Percy gave me a blank look. " _Paper Towns_ by John Green? It's a movie now."

"You know I'm not an active reader, so if you said the last name I might have got it. Do you know who did this to you?"

I shake my head and speak with frustration. "I honestly don't know most our grade, or people in this school. I don't care about most of the people in this place. I don't want to know a lot of the people in this place." I feel Callie put a comforting hand on my shoulder. She knows how I get when I start ranting and she feels quite similarly on this topic. "Besides, why should I have to prove myself to them? If they don't like me fine, but I sleep soundly at night knowing that they're boyfriends cheat on them, they're druggies, they're failing, they think they know about the real world, they think they have problems, they're obsessed my social media, or that they're lives will end after high school. They don't have futures and I do, so if any of them meet me the in post Goode years and want to apologize and be besties, they can because then we're both on the same playing field."

He looks a little stunned to say the least. Callie whispers something about using my Delta to get on Gmail, and I tell her she can. I don't want her to me dragged into this. I look into his eyes and I know he's so close to seeing the vulnerable side of me. I also see a bit of hurt.

"I'm guessing I'm one of those people."

"No, you're not." My insides are twisting and the calmness turns to panic. I still see hurt and I know I have to fix this. "Look, I'm not good at opening up to people or dealing with emotions, and sorry if I hurt you. I didn't mean to-"

Percy puts his hand, telling me to stop. "Okay, I'm going to ask you something. If I said those things to you, how would you feel?"

I ponder that. If it was someone at that school that wasn't Percy or the other good people, I'd flip them off and walk away because I don't care what they think. It wouldn't hurt me. I think about his voice saying those things. They do hur,t and I want to take them back all over again, but I can't. That's the thing about words and insults, you can't them back or slap a band aid on. No, words, whether they're lies or truths, go so much deeper. That makes them a lot worse then punches.

"I know I hurt you and-"

"I get that Annabeth, but how would you feel?"

"I would feel hurt okay!"

His eyes soften and he comfortingly puts an arm over my shoulders to pull me close. I needed this. We sit there like this for a few moments. I hear him whisper an apology and I whisper one back. I realize I like having him as my friend, even if I get strangled because of it.

* * *

The day, like life, goes on and I meet Percy in the pool area after school for swimming. He seems better when he's teaching me, but also giving me extra care because of what happened. We joke about how people usually get everything in their favorite colors, it explains why a lot of his stuff is blue, and high school movies.

It's simple and care free with a splash after every lap because the side stroke is difficult.

"What's the point of this one?"

"I think it's to swim away from sharks."

"Why can't you just swim away?"

"I don't know, ask the sharks."

We finished up not too long after that and I handed him the printed out note cards.

"Remember to look over these."

"Yes mam." He salutes me and I smile.

* * *

It's slower than the usual Thursday night since the Yankees have a play-off game tonight. I don't mind since the game's on all the TVs. At about eight, I'm assigned a table with one woman. The strange thing is, she asks for me, and I remember dad wanted me to meet someone.

I believe she's in her late thirties since she knows my dad and she's dressed casually in jeans, a grey blouse, and hiking boats. Her hair is black and pulled in a bun, not a strand out of place. Her eyes a like storm cloud grey and guarded like mine. It's actually the first time I've met someone with my eye color. I feel intelligence come off her in waves and she carries herself like royalty.

"Hello, it's a pleasure to finally be properly acquainted with you Annabeth." She sticks out her hand and I shake it. "Well, your grip is firm unlike your father's. Now, I would like an iced water no lemon." I swiftly jot that down. "Now, hurry back because we have a lot to discuss."

I do as told after I finish up my other two tables, and telling Sil to send the next tables to other people. She didn't ask why and agreed as long as it didn't get busy. I head back over to her, sitting at a stool table for two. Once I place the water in front of her, she puts the menu down.

"I'll have the classic cheesecake, after I'm done speaking with you." She gestures to the chair across from her.

"I'm not supposed to sit down on the job."

"Believe me, it's better if you sit down."

I sigh and jump into the stool chair. "Please tell me you aren't here to tell me I'm a princess, wizard, or anything else that I'm not."

She raises an eyebrow. "No, you're still Annabeth Sophia Chase, and nothing I say will change that."

"Unless you're my escort to an arranged marriage." She gives me a pointed look. "I read a lot okay."

"Well, that's something to be proud of. Now, I'm guessing you have no idea who I am?" I nod. "My name is Athena and I'm a past friend of your father."

"Then why don't you talk to him instead?"

"Because I burned that bridge a little under two decades ago. No, I can never repair my relationship with him, and I simply don't have the time or energy."

"Why not? You seem to have put in a good deal of time and effort to talk to me."

She pauses briefly. "In late May, I'm going on a trip and I have no plans of coming back. Fredrick, would keep up defense until April and I wouldn't enough time by then. I will not postpone my journey, so the only way is through you."

I study her carefully. "You've never done me any wrong."

"Not directly, but I personally feel like I've wronged you Annabeth."

"How?"

Athena sighs and looks around the almost empty restaurant. "Go tell them to make my cheesecake."

I nod and come back in less than a minute. "Where were we?"

"I knew you're mother, back when she left you with your father."

I sat on the stool in shock. I don't think about my mother often, but I never gave any thought to where she is now. I feel like she abandoned me all those years ago and in exchange I hope she got all she ever wanted and dreamed of. That doesn't mean I'm okay with her choices, I actually resent her a lot, but I never wanted her to be harmed or fully understand how much she hurt me, okay maybe the latter to happen.

"She's dead." I say it with no emotion.

Athena looks serious. "Yes, the woman I knew all those years ago is dead."

"When?"

"A few years after you were born, I think you were four."

"How?"

"It was the stress of another pregnancy, but the guy left her, and she died in labor."

"I-I had a sibling?"

Athena shakes her head. "No, you have a half brother that I have custody of. Malcolm's only ever known me as his mom, so keep that secret to yourself."

I had a brother. He's only two years older than the twins, so he's about thirteen. What's he like? Does he play sports? Does he read? Does he have a favorite book? What would he think of an older sister? What would he think of as **me** as his older sister?

I voice my last question out loud. "Does even know I exist?"

"No, he does not, but he will."

I look up at her. "Excuse me?"

"In honor of the woman I knew, I'm going to do all the things she would have done with you before I leave. You should probably go get my cheesecake."

I get up in a trance and come back with her desert. I sit back on the stool. "What makes you think I need a mom?"

"I know you have a step mom-"

I speak soft and with anger. "Helen is not my mom. You are not my mom. My egg donor is not my mom. Thalia is my mom. I don't need you to be someone you're not just to avenge a dead woman who didn't give a shit about what her actions did to me for seventeen years."

Athena looked surprised and worried, probably because I just flipped off her whole plan and view of what she thought of my world. She quietly finishes her cheesecake and then looks upon me. "Who's Thalia?"

I glare at her and then burst into almost crazy laughter. "How much do you honestly know about me?"

Athena shrugged. "Your name, age, high school grades, Fredrick's family members, and that's it."

I lean onto the table and I feel myself get serious as I start to whisper. "Thalia is the woman who partnered up my the love of her life at age ten. Thalia is the woman who took in a seven year old me when I ran away from home and took care of me whenever I escaped. Thalia is a woman who found her brother in foster care and adopted him and his friend when she was eighteen and recently married to the boy she met on the streets. Thalia is a woman who graduated from college. Thalia is the woman who showed me I can achieve the impossible. Thalia is the woman who did all the things a parent should and she is my mom. I'll go get your check."

When I get back, her face is full of regret. I remember what Percy said about treating others, but no one can replace Thals. Still, I want to meet my half brother. He deserves to know about me at least.

Athena eyes me. "I'm sorry for what she put you through. I still want to make it up to you. Surely, there must me something you want and in return if we do my original plan."

"Anything?"

Athena smiles. "I'm worth about five billion thanks to my several companies and stock, I think that should be enough proof I can get you what you want."

"I want you to help play me, Jason, and Leo to go to any college we choose to attend. I would also like for three extra people to be on that list if they need financial help."

She didn't even break a sweat. "Fine, I'll find you the next time I'm in New York City."

Athena then pays, leaving a nice ten dollar tip, and I think about what I just got myself into.

 **I don't own The Little Mermaid, Spongebob, PJO, HoO, or "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton. I messed up a few words, so it's not breaking any rules. Also, today's Jason's birthday, the day Percabeth fell into hell, and June 28th celebrated the tenth anniversary of TLT, and the fandom in my opinion. Thanks to everyone who reviews, follows, and favorites.**

 **If it wasn't clear by now, yes I'm continuing this story. I'd also love to hear viewers opinions for this chapter or theories, so please keep reviewing.  
**


	5. Chapter 5

_Life is like a roller coaster you ride for the first time, it's filled with hidden ups and downs, some aren't fun._

* * *

After my oh so wonderful chat with Athena, I work until the end of my shift and Jason and Leo pick me up. They both know only one of them needs to come, but they do it because they want to spend more time with me. They show up in Thalia's car, since Leo is still building Festus, with Jason driving and Leo sitting in shotgun. I jump into the middle seat in the back.

"So what have you two been up to?"

Jason and Leo smirk. "Well chica, the Yankees won the game today."

I perk up. "Yeah."

Jason nods. "We could have lost a lot of money, so we asked Luke about the odds."

"Jason, it's a series, there will be two games left."

He decides to ignore me and let Leo continue. "The three of us bet a combined 3k in small amount all over the place, so we now have about 6k."

I smile. "Good for you two, and what are you going to do with it?"

Leo grins like a maniac. "We're going to buy tickets for tomorrow's game!"

"It's sold out."

Jason shakes his head. "There are always people selling tickets outside, we buy those by getting there as early as possible or we buy off online."

"You two included me in this, so who else is going?"

Leo starts to count. "Luke, for helping, Thalia, because like you she'd be pissed if we didn't include her, Calypso, my girlfriend, Piper, because she's Sparky's girlfriend and she has a key to a box, Nico, needs to get out more, Hazel, never been to a playoff game, and finally Frank, because he has never been to a game ever."

I shake my head. "He's Canadian , most don't get the chance."

Jason smirks. "Leo just wants him to fully understand the U.S.A. and all it's customs while Clarisse is his guardian."

Ah yes, Frank has been living with his half sister ever since his mom and grandma died. Clarisse, being his only living relative on this continent, took him in and works part time at Outback with me and her boyfriend works in a gun shop. Hazel, Nico's long lost half sister who was verbally abused by her mother and forced to make counterfeit money, and Frank started dating a few weeks ago, but everyone knows he wouldn't leave the U.S. if it meant leaving her.

"So, besides gambling, what else did you two do today." Jason and Leo started whistling. I glare at them. "If you guys did anything illegal..." I let it hang in the air for a few seconds, waiting for them to break.

Leo is the one to crack. "We egged and glitter bombed six cars."

"Did those cars happen to belong to girls?"

Jason fesses up next. "Yeah, they go to Goode and we used black glitter."

I smile. "I can always count on you two bring the rain down on my enemies."

Jason looks at me in the mirror. "They became our enemies when they started pulling crap."

Leo smirks. "Got that right Jase, and we don't just make it rain, we set it on fucking fire!"

The three of us burst out laughing. When it quiets down, Jason asks about work, since they know how my day went. I sigh and tell them everything, from my biological mother being dead and the deal I made with Athena. They're both quiet for a few moments after, until Leo speaks.

"Thanks for helping me get my shop, but are you okay with this?"

"I'm with Leo, is it worth it? More importantly, are you going to tell Thalia?"

"It's worth it, plus I can add three people remember. I'm going to tell Thals, she is my mom and not Athena, no matter what that woman thinks."

As it turns out, Thals is waiting outside the apartment building. She has her arms covered with a black leather jacket and tapping her foot.

"Jason and Leo, get your butts inside and tell me before you make bets. Annabeth go eat your dinner and we need to talk."

We all sigh, I guess they forget to include the matriarch in on their scheme. The three of us walk in with Thalia as an escort who shoos away the boys when we get inside. They mumble apologies.

Thals sighs. "I'm not mad, just tell me before you pull shit like betting money, okay?" The boys nod and Thals hugs both of them. "I'm just so proud to have helped raised such resourceful teenagers, you'll do just fine in the real world and hopefully, you don't get gambling problems."

Leo lets go first. "I know and I'll be so well off I'll fix your car for free."

"You better Valdez."

"And I'll fly you anywhere you want to go, pilot a drone to deliver your stuff, be a president-"

"You'll pick something in time, so don't stress Jason."

"I'll design your dream house for free, and chip in for the manual labor."

"That's okay Annie, but I want a new apartment building. Now, go do your homework." They groaned and Thals ruffled their hair when they passed. She then focused on me. "We have diner to eat."

"Can't I do my homework while eating?"

"You can Annie, but I need to talk to you."

I nod and drag my backpack over to the kitchen where pasta is recently heated up. I plop down to start math and shove a fork pull of pasta in my mouth, pretty good. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"Your day, but I already know about what those girls did and what the boys did for vengeance. The thing is, most of the time you see this coming and when you don't, it means you're scared or distracted, usually both."

I finish a problem and take a gulp of milk. "If you're asking what I think, then yes it was Ethan and yes I was scared," I pull down my hoodie's neck line, "because he strangled me."

Thals is in shock for a second, then comes cover and gives me a hug. "Annie, it's moments like this that me want to call 911 and get that asshole locked."

"Thals-"

"Because I love you, Luke loves you, Jason loves you, Leo loves you, and we don't want shit like this to happen to you."

"Unless I'm in the hospital, I'm going to be okay Thals, and yes I love all of you too."

She sighs. "Fine, so what else happened?"

I skip school, because she knows the rest isn't that important, and talk work. I tell her about Athena, every little detail, and how I made a deal with her. "She didn't give a date, just the next time she's NYC."

Thalia's quiet for a minute and I see her wipe a lone tear away. "I'm honored you dissed her, called me your mom, and helped everyone get a step closer to a degree, but are you okay with this?"

"Not entirely, but we can't be okay with everything we do."

"You're not okay with half the crap that happens to you. Tell you what, I'll go with you and meet her next time she shows up."

I smile. "Thanks, that will make it extremely awkward."

She ruffles my hair and stops hugging me. "I know, night."

"Night."

I finish up the rest of my homework before midnight, take my shower, and then proceed to curl up on the couch.

 **!Linebreak**

It's weird to get to the pool area before Percy, now I have to sit on the bleachers alone. Is this why he doesn't like silence? I hear "Pompeii" playing over the radio and quietly sing the words while I work on my black hole project. It still feels strange so I walk down to the bottom and call Nico over.

"What is it Chase?"

"You, my friend, are coming to the Yankees game tonight."

"You're shitting me."

"No, I get off work at seven because it starts a little past eight."

Coach Kym blows her whistle and commands everyone to jump in. "Fine, I'll be over at six something with Hazel." He then jumps in via cannonball to splash Lou.

"I didn't know you knew Nico."

I jump an inch and turn around to see Percy there smiling. "Yes, I know Nico. Why are you ten minutes late?"

He trails me as I walk up the bleachers to our stop. "Technically, I'm on time."

"Answer the question Jackson."

"I was helping my friend Grover carry in these posters from my car since we carpool."

I raise an eyebrow. "You have a car?"

"It's the Prius in the lot with the weird dent in the hood."

I roll my eyes. "I don't need to know how you managed to do that right now. I need to help you review for that quiz you have today."

Percy groans. "Why can't the quiz be on Monday?"

I smirk. "Because most people, you included, don't study over the weekend."

"Okay, you win and I'll study some more."

I read him questions, he answers 9 out of 10 right. We use the flashcards, he knows most of them. I give him short answers and he explains them pretty well. Finally, I hand him an essay prompt and tell him to make a web and write no more than 18 sentences and all paragraphs have to be five sentences at least.

While this is going on, I'm singing "Stand in the Rain" by Superchick.

"So stand in the rain, stand you're ground, stand up when its all coming down."

Percy stops writing to tap out this part while I keep singing. "Stand through your pain, you wont drown. And one day whats lost will be found, if you stand in the rain."

He keeps tapping even though I stopped singing. "Okay, the chorus is done Seaweed Brain. You need to finish that in ten."

"But there's twenty minutes left in class."

"That way we can go over anything you don't feel as sure about."

Percy finished in the next five minutes and it took me five to read it. "Minus the fact your handwriting is giving me a headache, and that you could use more detail, it's pretty good."

He fist bumps the air. "Yes, I pass the Annabeth Chase test."

I laugh at his antics. "Yeah, but I don't make Mr. Brunner's assessments."

Percy smiles so bright it could power NYC. "True, but it's nice to know you believe in me."

 **!Linebreak**

At the end of a long school day, which was mostly Callie and me talking about the game, I head to the pool. The second I'm out of the locker room, I get rushed by Percy. He picks me up and twirls me around, saying "thank you" over and over again. Instead of feeling alarmed or threatened, I feel happy and safe, strange.

"Seaweed Brain, can you please put me down and explain the spinning."

Percy's face goes a light shade of pink and he puts my feet back on the ground. He's still hugging the crap out of me though. "Mr. Brunner graded the quiz and I got a 91%. That was the first A I ever got on a quiz in his class."

I smile and hug him back. "I knew you could do it."

That leaves us both smiling idiots hugging in swim suits. Oh shit, were in swim suits. I awkwardly cough and gesture to the pool. Percy face goes through a realization and he releases me to dive in the deep end. I feel a little cold and disappointed because the embrace ended, but I'm not going to hug someone when we're both barely wearing anything in public, Percy included.

I dive near him in the pool to splash him and surface right next to him. "So, what are we going to do today?"

Percy taps his pointer to his chin. "Well, it's Friday, so let's do breast stroke."

"Okay coach."

After a minute Percy told me that while, yes, I got the stroke form right, you need to surface after one motion.

"Who came up with that rule?"

"Not sure, but my guess is racing officials."

I sigh, but do as told. I get bored easily and start to slow down. When I come up to breath, I notice Percy is ahead of me. Due to the perks of ADHD, I see shapes a different color, or a tone lighter than his skin, on his back. They're jagged and look to have been made with by glass. They're also old and faded, but I can tell they cover about half his back. Someone hurt him. I realize I've stopped swimming a minute ago and so does Percy.

"You okay Annabeth?"

I'll ask about them later considering how deep they look and the clearly home sown stitches that patched them together. "Yeah, just got a little distracted."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm going back under right now." I do the stroke and surface to see Percy smiling.

Maybe, I judged wrong. Maybe, he's faced his own demons and came out victorious. Maybe, he'll understand why, if or when he discovers them all. Maybe, he can handle it.

 **!Linebreak**

When I get home from work early, the apartment contains more bodies than normal. There's an African American girl with cinnamon brown hair and gold eyes who's thirteen, Hazel. A Chinese Canadian teenage boy an inch taller than Jason with black military cut hair and soft brown eyes who's fifteen, Frank. There's a Cherokee fifteen year old girl with her brown choppy hair in braids and ever changing eyes looking at a movie trailer in disgust, Piper.

I can't blame Piper because her dad is the shirtless star of it and even though their relationship has made leaps and bounds, it's something she can't stand to see.

So, the total count is Frank, Hazel, Piper, Nico, Callie, Luke, Thalia, Leo, and Jason, plus me still in the door way. They all seemed ready to go, which is a nice change, and waiting on me. I quietly close to door, but Nico detects the sound and movement.

"Annabeth's home."

Then, like one of Leo's Aunt Rosa's family reunions, I'm stormed by bodies. Piper and Hazel jump at me and Frank raps all of us in the Zhang bear hug. Leo jumps on all of us, so we all fall to the floor. I don't hit anything, which is my average on the sport of falling. Callie sighs.

"Leo, you could have waited."

He sent her a smirk. "But where's the fun in that sunshine?"

Jason is helping Piper up as the two continue their playful arguing. Frank is already up along with Hazel and they both are helping Nico. Luke lends me a hand and soon I'm back on my feet as well.

"You might want to go get changed."

"You don't say."

Thals rolls her eyes. "Just go Annie, before someone breaks something."

I nod and head to the bathroom. I grab my bag of clothes and close the door right as I hear a thud. I put on jeans, a Yankees' shirt, and the only present Fredrick ever gave me, a beat up two decade old Yankees cap. I'm not sure why he gave me it, but ,ironically, it's helped me hide over the years.

Then, a grey envelope catches my eye. I pull it out and face palm. This is what I forgot about yesterday. The handwriting is familiar and reminds me of a receipt someone signed at Outback. The thing is, I don't have time to open it right now. I sigh and shove it back in my clothes bag which I place next to the tub. I can put it back it the closet later.

I exit, ready to go with everything I need quickly crammed in to my grey satchel. I usually just carry my backpack around, but it takes up too much space and weighs a lot more. Not to mention the security might think I'm carrying a bomb or something. I can see Thals talking to Nico and Leo about not wrestling in the apartment.

"I get the fact you both want to left off steam, but don't do it when the living room is packed. And further more-"

"I'm ready Thals!"

"-it's time for us to go to the game."

 **!Linebreak**

We all get in easy enough. The only problem we have to deal is seating, since the tickets were all sold in twos and are all in different sections. That leaves Thals and Luke to organize who goes where.

Luke calls us all together and form a huddle right near a hot dog place. "Okay, Piper, do you still have access to that box?"

Piper smiles. "Yeah, it's reserved all year in case my dad ever wants to pop in to see a game."

"Great, who wants to go to the box?"

Piper, Jason, Hazel, Frank, Leo, and Callie raise their hands.

Thals smirks. "Okay, I trust that you all won't do anything." Que blushing from the three couples. "Luke and I will take the seats near third, right in foul ball territory. Annie and Nico, I'm guessing you two are partnering up."

The two of us make eye contact and a silent agreement. "I speak for Nico and myself in saying we would like the only tickets in home run country."

Leo muttered. "Figures."

Piper rolls her eyes. "It's not like she packed a glove." Piper then examines my satchel. "Or did you?"

I laugh and shake my head. "Nah, I don't need one. Come di Angelo, we have home runs to collect."

Nico shuffles over next to me. "First off, if I catch one, it's mine. Second, don't boss me around Chase."

"Sure, now come on!"

 **!Linebreak**

If there is one object, or non living thing, I love in this world more than architecture, it's baseball. I don't know why I love the sport so much. What I do know is that it's America's national pass time, the first sport I ever played, and it's where Fredrick took my mother for one of their anniversaries. Much like the sport, I didn't choose to root for the Yankees at first. If I had to guess why, it would be because the first national game I got into with Luke and Thals was here and I caught a home run. The cap I got years later only cemented them as my forever team.

So, every Yankees game I go to, I try to get a baseball to take home. As shown by the eighteen baseballs I have stored in Fredrick's abode from twenty-five games, I come home with a ball 72% of the time. I have rules though, like no ripping it out of other people's hands and it has to be in my general area. I look at poor Nico, who knows exactly what he's in for.

"You know, that box is pretty big if you don't want to join my quest."

He makes a look of pure disgust. "Um, no way in hell am I entering the PDA box."

"Than what does that make this?"

He shrugs. "A chance for me to tease you about Percy."

I pause and cross my arms at the younger boy. "Okay, that's just plain cruel. That means I get to tease you about Will."

Nico blushes and drags me. "Let's just get over to the seats."

Six innings later, all I had to show for my efforts is a ball one of the Yankee players threw up at me, still counts but not the goal, and an annoyed Nico.

"I'm hungry."

"You ate before we got here."

"Well, I'm hungry again."

"Well, there's two outs and then the Yankees bat again." I cheer as the other team strikes out. "You know the drill Nico, watch your side of the field."

"I protest."

I look at him. "Excuse me?"

"I refuse to work until I get paid with food."

I groan. "Nico, I'll get you food after this if you work now."

"Then I'll still protest until then."

"You know what, I'll do this on my own and you can go get food by your self."

"Can't do that since we're following the buddy system."

I hear a slam look away from Nico and back to the field, a ball is coming our way. I stand up on my seat as it passes the wall. It's coming right at so I jump and catch in both hands then stick the landing. A few around me clap while Nico looks overjoyed.

"Yes Nico, we can go get food now."

We both make our way out of the isle and start towards the steps which lead to nourishment. As we get to the steps I hear the kiss cam music start to play and pause at the top to watch. I smile when I see Thalia and Luke. Nico gags, he hates the kiss cam with a passion so he looks away, and tries to drag me to the damn snack bar. I almost wish he succeeded as a familiar face pops up on the jumbo screen.

He looks shocked to say the least and the girl with flaming hair next to him says something. His face flushes crimson and before he can say a word, she places her lips to his.

There are another round of aws and more talk of young love. I go limp and Nico takes his chance to drag me towards food, not even noticing. I feel like someone just told me that I could never be an architect. I feel like my mother has come back from the grave to spit in my face and call me a worthless mistake. I feel like someone crushed my heart and my dreams in seven swift seconds. Why does it hurt so much?

Nico finally notices when we get in line. "Are you okay Annabeth?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." In reality, I was far from fine because I had just witnessed some ginger kiss Percy Jackson.

 **To Hiya; I like your idea and think about**

 **To jessica jasso; Keep up the curiosity**

 **To Guest; I hope I fixed the transition issue**

 **To all others; Thanks for your reviews, opinions, and I hope you enjoyed the update**

 **Also, I'll try to update every 2-4 weeks. If I update faster, take that as a gift.**


	6. Chapter 6

_People have one reason why they lie, they don't want others to know the truth._

* * *

The game went on, the Yankees won, and I curled up on the couch. When everyone in the apartment was sound asleep, I checked, I opened my laptop. I clicked my old and new designs, made some more, until it stops cheering me up.

When that happens, I eat cookie dough ice cream from a mug that says 'If knowledge is power, why am I not ruling the world?'. More specifically, the mug I make melted chocolate from chocolate chips whenever I'm on my cycle. I'm left with liquid ice cream at the bottom and down it, only to be left with an ice cream mustache. I then proceed to clean the mug, dry it, and put it back in it's special place next to the coffee ones.

After that, I go back to my couch and do something I like to do, think.

Maybe I do have a crush on Jackson, but it doesn't matter. He probably is dating that ginger, or is now at least. Besides, why would he like me? I'm just Annabeth who he met this week, like a few days ago. He might have known that girl for months, years, or seconds, and I refuse to be that girl who breaks up a couple. Are they even a couple? I guess I'll just play it safe and keep being his friend, because I let Percy in so I have to live with the fact I can't ditch him.

I sigh. I need to stop thinking about this and get some sleep. I close my eyes and decide to focus all my attention on the word forever. The person who came up with it was probably a poet, a philosopher, or someone who had to much time on their hands. Because nothing can or will last until the end of time, not to mention time never stops counting. Life does not last forever. This apartment will not last forever. The earth, the sun, and the stars will not last forever given billions of years. Nothing does nor shall it ever-yawn-so why did I think I could have one?

* * *

I spent the next two days enjoying the weekend and finishing school work, so I wasn't happy when I woke up on Monday. Why can't today be yesterday again and I could have my very own movie about it? I turn off my alarm and stretch.

The rest of the morning passes in routine and bits seem to blur themselves out. Before I know it, I'm at Goode. I look around for Calypso, but don't see her. I sigh, pull out my phone, and text her. She responds seconds later, saying she's has a fever. I text her to get better and head off to my locker.

I see a group of students mulling around it. "Hey! Get away from my locker!" They scatter like a herd discovering a near by predator. I can see from a distance neon color and stroll over for a closer look.

Yup, they spray painted words this time. I press my finger to the blue bitch and pull back to see paint on it. Upon further inspection, I can tell they wrote words on top of each other and some were incomplete. In fact, it doesn't even look like words from a distance. Still, I have to tell Mr. D my locker needs a paint job.

I quickly collect my things, and head to the office on the second floor. I pass people snickering and pointing at me, but I ignore them. When I arrive at the office, it's like a circus. Satyrs, student assistants, are scrambling to get everything in order before school starts, which is in about ten minutes. I spot a satyr with brown hair covered with some Jamaican looking hat, doing paperwork in a desk, crutches on the side.

I walk over to him and ding the bell on his desk. He looks up at me, surprise in his brown eyes. He looks oddly familiar, but I've never seen or talked to him at Goode. Then again, I rarely talk with a lot people in this school.

He coughs and puts down the poster he was holding. "Is there something I can do for you?"

I smile softly. "Some jerks decided to stray paint my locker. I was wondering how long it'll be until it can be painted over?"

He sighs and frowns. "I'd like to tell you it'll be done by the end of the week, but we both know that won't happen." I frown. "But if it's any consolation, I can get you the paint and my friend and I could help you do it."

I smile and realize who he is. "Thanks Grover, didn't know you worked here."

"I'm surprised you remember me. The last time we talked, we were twelve."

I shake my head. "No we were almost thirteen. Still, I'm sorry haven't tried to contact you."

Grover chuckles. "It's fine, I mean you always had a lot on your plate so I assume you still do."

"You assumed correctly."

Grover checks to see if our conversation is being listened to. "So, are you here with family, alone, Fredrick...?"

I cross my arms and fake anger. "Do you honestly think I ran away again?"

Grover shrugs. "Yup."

I smirk. "Too bad, because I actually live here."

Grover raises his eyebrow. "You don't say."

"I really do. Anyway, maybe we can catch up later at lunch or-"

"Painting your locker?"

I groan. "Or that. Can we do it tomorrow after my practice, because I know the environment club meets then too."

"Sure, and I'll get someone to help out. This place is always open if you ever want to say hi."

"Yes, I'll stop by baring a plate of smoking hot enchiladas."

* * *

I say farewell to Grover and make my way towards the pool area. Everything seems normal enough, the right amount freshmen and Coach Kym holding their "undivided" attention. Percy's is waiting impatiently in our spot, but waves me over once he spots me. I roll my eyes and walk to the stuff is out, but far from organized, which puts a smile on my face. Percy smiles at me with pride that further warms my heart, as a friend.

"What happened Wise Girl? You almost came late."

"Had to go visit the office."

Percy looks at me, arms crossed. "And why did you have to go to the office?"

I shrug. "My locker needs redecorating, nothing too serious."

Percy sighs. "I still think you should tell your parents about this."

I let out a snort at the idea of Fredrick calling the principal and being a responsible parent to me. Yeah, that will happen when pigs fly. Percy's giving me a curious look. "Jackson, I'm fine. They have enough to worry about,"like the twins for instance,"so why would I add myself to the list."

I can see that he knows I'm lying, but he doesn't pester or ask further, good Seaweed Brain. "So, what's the plan for today?"

I explain that we'll read the next lesson off my laptop, take notes, and make note cards. He nods and starts working while I work ahead on my English. We work in blissful silence for over ten minutes and just thinking that means I'm just asking for it to be broken. This time, though, it me who broke it, or my phone technically.

Calypso's ringtone for texts, which is "Brave", went off and I checked what she sent. She said she just puked and since this is probably contagious I should watch my back. I reply that she should be sleeping and not texting me. We continue our jabs and joking until Percy speaks up.

"Who are you texting?"

I look over at him. "Callie, remember the girl who's my best friend and was with us the nurse's office last week?"

"Believe it or not I have a great memory."

"Sure, then why didn't you guess instead of ask?"

He blushes just the tiniest bit and my smirk widens. "I'm not some all knowing mysterious force that magically know who your texting, that's you."

"Really."

"Yup, I'm just your friend and underling who is helping you."

I internally wince at the f word, then remember I called him that in my head minutes ago. Just be an f word, because he has redhead and you don't want to ruin that. "If you were my underling, why would I be helping you?"

He opens his mouth, then closes it. I smirk and gesture back to what we were doing moments ago. Percy groans and puts his head in his hands. I cross my arms and playfully scowl.

"I don't train quitters Jackson."

He looks up and glares at me. "I'm not a quitter."

I nod and he goes back to being his normal playful self and continues to take notes. Those words though, it seems like he's had to say them time and time again. I stop that trail of thought, you have no business thinking of his past when you won't even talk about yours.

* * *

Lunch comes soon enough and I take a seat at the small four person table in the back. I think about texting Callie, but she needs her rest. So, I pull out _Looking for_ _Alaska_ to finish rereading it. I'm at the part where Alaska tells him where she stores her strawberry hill when an uninvited person plops down across from me. I look up to find it's not one, but two.

"How the hell did you two get into Goode?"

The Latino shrugs. "Uno, your security has already been hacked by yours truly."

The blond makes a peace sign. "And two, a lazy guard thought we went here and let us in."

I smirk. "Did their name tag say Bob?"

Leo, who is making a helicopter, nods. "Your point? He's a terrible guard, what if we had been shooters?"

I laugh. "Leo, Bob's a janitor and he knows I basically live with you two."

Jason blushes. "You go around talking about your personal life with a janitor? Annabeth, how often do people mess with you?"

I shrug. "It's happening less now. Anyway, he wanted me to tell my parents and I said they don't a shit about me. From then on, he cleans the basic stuff or gets rid of it for me." The boys share a look. I sigh. "Guys, it's fine. You both know-"

"Hey Beth."

I put my rant on pause and grit my teeth. "Go the fuck away asshole."

Of course he does the exact opposite and sits down next to me. He's still wearing that patch. I think he finds that it unnerves me. It does. Jason and Leo watch him closely, but his focus rests on me.

"Course Beth, just let me see your psych notes."

I face him and my words come out harsh and almost sound like I'm growling. "Go get them from someone else Nakamura."

He holds his hands up in the surrender position and walks off. His eye says this isn't over, and I know it's about Jason and Leo sitting with me. The two mentioned sit their quiet in their own thoughts with the same look.

Leo clears his throat. "Does that guy bother you chica?"

Tell them. Don't tell them. Don't get them in trouble or hurt. "No more than anyone else here."

Jason crosses his arms and his no nonsense look reminds me of Judge Judy. "You're lying Annabeth."

Yeah, I am, but all actions have positive or negative reactions. They would go to the cops, cops go to Fredrick, cops realize Fredrick and Helen are neglecting me, and worst case secerio, I get sent into the foster system away from my real family and don't go to college. "Okay, he annoys and unnerves me the most." The two boys seem to buy, since it's not an actual lie and we change the topic to more happy things.

* * *

When school ended, I run into the locker room's bathrooms to change and lock a stall. I know I'm being paranoid, but if there's one thing about Nakamura besides him being an asshole, it's the fact he can be predictable and not at the same time. So in the words of cautious people everywhere, better safe than sorry.

Once I finish changing, I head to the pool area. Surprisingly, I'm the first one here. Do I get in the pool before the swim team gets in, which for all I know is some sacred ritual, or stare at the water looking like an idiot? Jump in it is.

I dive in and the water is freezing, more so than usual. Then I feel a warm on my shoulders, that can only be human, in the corner of my eye, I see Percy. He's smiling as he pulls me to the surface.

I breath in deeply and turn to Percy who is smirking. "Couldn't wait to jump in?"

"Nope, I didn't want to stand there waiting for you to get here."

He smirks. "Well Wise Girl, it's time to start with diving."

"But I just-"

"For the last time, I didn't create the swimming section in gym class, I just enforce it."

The two of us get out and make our way over the diving boards. Percy got there first and gestures to the low board that you can find at any public pool.

"All you have to do is jump and then we can enjoy the finer things in life."

I smirk. "Do you mean architecture?"

He rolls his eyes. The poor boy has dealt with my ranting for every historical monument or building of high importance in his tutor sessions. Percy may not like it, but all my fangirling does help him remember history.

"No Chase, it's better."

I cross my arms. "The chances of that are micro-no nanoscopical."

"Is that even a word?"

"For my purposes it is."

"And what are your intentions Wise Girl? To reinvent the English language?"

"As intriguing as that seems, I just wanted to declare how implausible the odds are of you knowing of something better than the wonders of cellas, arches, caryatids, orthostyles, chimeras-"

"Okay you win. Now can you dive in the pool or not?"

I walk calmly down to the end of the board then look back at Percy with a blush about to form. "I'm doing this for myself Seaweed Brain, not for your surprise." I dive off before he can defend whatever he wanted to show me and I resurface to find a spray to the face."

When Percy resurfaces he has the most innocent look on his face. I scowl at him with fake distaste and splash him back. I guess I splashed him too hard though.

"Damn it Wise Girl! You got water in my eyes!"

I can't help but laugh. "Water can't kill you Seaweed Brain."

Percy keeps his eyes closed and starts reaching out like a blind person. Please may he not be doing what I think he is.

"Marco!"

Too late. I swim just far enough out of his reach. "No way in hell am I playing Marco Polio with you!"

Percy swims towards me and I swim back. "Marco!"

"I'm serious Jackson!"

"If you don't say Marco I'll follow the sounds of your protests."

Sadly, he was pretty close to me now and if he could use his stupid seal eyes I'd be screwed. I sigh and swim away. I whisper so it's hard for him to find me. "Polio."

He smiles and starts to follow me around. People give us a few weird looks. Then they just remember they have laps to do and that I'm keeping track of who's slacking as a way to distract Percy. After getting caught a few times, they keep their thoughts to themselves.

Eventually, practice is over and the only noise is me and Percy playing. Since I have to go to work soon, I decide to sit on a ladder and let him catch.

"Marco!"

"Polio."

"Marco!"

"Polio."

"Marco!"

"Pol-Jackson you found my knee, don't caress it."

Percy still holds onto my knee and pets it like a dog. "But it's so entertaining."

I try to keep the butterflies to a minimum. "Whatever you goof."

Percy smiles back up at me with a strange light aflame in his eyes. "Right back at yeah weirdo."

 **I know this is short and it's really late compared to when I wanted to put this up. I'm so sorry I've kept you all waiting, and I should really stop making promises.**


End file.
